A WordPress Blog-THE CHURCH MILITANT Ephesians 5:11-"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them". This Christian News Blog maintains a one stop resource of current news and reports of its own related to church, moral, spiritual, and related political issues, plus articles, and postings from other online discernment ministries, and media which share the aims to obey the biblical commands to shed light on and refute error, heresy, apostasy, cults, and spiritual abuse. ALL CONTENT FROM HTTPS://RATHEREXPOSETHEM.BLOGSPOT.COM MOVED TO THIS NEW BLOG, MAY 2020
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
If our truth-stranger-than-fiction culture persists, parody sites such as the Onion
may be put out of business. Case in point: After Oprah Winfrey’s Sunday
speech at the Golden Globe awards, there’s serious talk about her
running for the White House. NBC even tweeted during the event, “Nothing
but respect for OUR future president.” Although the network later
deleted and disowned the tweet, stating it was sent by “a third party agency for NBC Entertainment,” Winfrey may in fact be poised for a major-party run.
The BBC writes that “her speech sounded an awful lot like a presidential candidate on the campaign stump,” and CNN quotes two of Winfrey’s friends as saying she was “actively thinking” about a White House run.
Winfrey certainly has two prerequisites for presidential ambitions:
Money and name recognition. Worth $3 billion, she could self-fund a
political campaign. And having hosted The Oprah Winfrey Show
for a quarter century, she’s a household name. Then she has that one
prerequisite for running on the Democrat ticket: radical politics.
Oh, explicit political statements from Winfrey are somewhat hard to
find; a consummate marketer, she has generally avoided such
pronouncements. But it doesn’t take much discernment or digging to
ferret out her feelings — and that’s precisely all they are.
Winfrey would never officially endorse political candidates (that
would alienate part of her audience), but she broke this pattern in 2008
with her overt support for Barack Obama. She then endorsed Hillary
Clinton in 2016.
This is no surprise, since Winfrey clearly shares these politicians’
extreme views. Consider prenatal infanticide. Berean Research reported
last year that Oprah Winfrey’s magazine touted a man named Dr. Willie
Parker, who “claims that God, who is the author of reproductive life,
morally approves of abortion,” wrote Berean.
Parker also penned the following, citing assassinated prenatal
infanticide perpetrator Dr. George Tiller, dubbed by critics “Tiller the
baby killer”: “Humane theology was the foundation of Dr. George
Tiller’s practice. It dictates that alleviating suffering is a
Christian’s sacred responsibility. If God is in everything, and in
everyone, then God is as much in the woman making a decision to
terminate a pregnancy as in her Bible.”
Of course, following Parker’s logic, we could also say that if God is
in everything, then God is as much in the serial killer as in his
victim or in the law book prohibiting murder. Is this a meaningful
argument? Winfrey exhibited such fuzzy thinking herself in 1997 while defending homosexual behavior, saying “The God I serve doesn’t care if you’re tall or short, or whether you were born, um, uh, black or Asian or gay.”
Of course, this argument conflates easily observable physical
attributes with a status defined by feelings. We also may ask, does God
care about anything? Does He care if we’re involved in bestiality or
pedophilia? In other words, unless we believe God subscribes to
occultist Aleister Crowley’s maxim, “Do what thou wilt shall be the
whole of the law,” we agree that God draws lines. Mature people then set
out discussing, seriously, where those lines are.
Winfrey followed up by saying that she believes God creates people as
homosexuals; this reflects the argument that “God doesn’t make
mistakes.” He doesn’t, but whether you believe our world is naturally
flawed or supernaturally fallen, spina bifida, cleft palate, Down
syndrome, and a multitude of other undesirable anomalies bear
testimonial to how abnormalities occur.
Moreover, did God create pedophiles as pedophiles? Note, too, that
while psychologists may claim homosexuality is innate, they also say
psychopathy is inborn. Does this mean it’s alright for someone to commit
murder if he was born with naturally occurring homicidal feelings?
Winfrey’s argument, boiled down, replaces morality with biological
determinism. It essentially states that if a behavior is dictated by
inborn urges, it’s morally licit. That way lies madness.
Nonetheless, Winfrey might make an effective politician. While her
1997 arguments were shallower than a babbling brook, she compensated
masterfully with fashionable emotional-grabbing rhetoric (video below).
But away from her show, especially in more recent years, Winfrey has
occasionally shown her teeth. For example, in a 2013 BBC interview, she
began “throwing the race card again,” as NewsBusters put it.
Addressing perceived anti-black “racism,” as epitomized by negative
attitudes toward Barack Obama (as if his policies didn’t warrant them),
she passionately said that old “racists” would have to die for “racism”
to end. Unsurprisingly, some interpreted her words as being directed
only at older, allegedly bigoted whites (video below).
Also in 2013, Winfrey opined that same-sex couples may make the institution of marriage stronger. In this vein, it’s also not a shock that Winfrey appears on board
with the unscientific “transgender” agenda as well. Just consider a 2004 Oprah show in which the host featured children who wanted to
live as the opposite sex. Calling her an “Agent of Moral Insanity,”
Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary & Boyce College, pointed out
that she applauded the “transgender” phenomenon, saying how great it is
that the younger generation “is so much more open to accepting children
as they are instead of trying to — forcing whatever your own idea was”
(even if that happens to be sanity).
In a way, though, Winfrey is perfectly attuned to our post-reason,
emotion-über-alles season. Emphasizing that “transgender” policies are
based on feelings, not biology, Catholic League president William
Donohue wrote of how Winfrey epitomized the viscera-over-virtue mentality:
“Follow your feelings. If it feels right, move forward. If it doesn’t
feel right, don’t do it.” That’s what Oprah told 2008 graduates at
Stanford. “And how do you know when you’re doing something right? How do
you know that? It feels so. What I know is that feelings are really
your GPS system for life.”
Of course, Hitler’s feelings led him to conquer and kill. Jeffrey
Dahmer’s feelings caused him to cannibalize his serial murder victims.
Jerry Sandusky’s feelings drove him to molest young boys. This is all
just too stupid, too easy to refute, and too tiresome. Global
Positioning System for life? Any finely tuned guiding hand will know
that one position the globalist Winfrey doesn’t belong in is the
presidency.
_______________________________________________________ ALSO SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS AND OTHER ARTICLES ABOUT OPRAH’S APOSTASY, OCCULTISM, NEW AGE MYSTICISM, TWISTED, DISTORTED INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE, SUPPORT FOR ABORTION & GAY RIGHTS:
Rob Bell to Oprah: Church Is ‘Moments Away’ from Embracing Same-Sex ‘Marriage’
STUDY: MORE THAN 25% OF CALIFORNIA KIDS ARE “GENDER NON-CONFORMING”~
ALEX NEWMAN & DR. DUKE PESTA REVIEW
For those wondering whether the gender insanity preached in government
schools across America was having an effect, we seem to have an answer —
and it’s not pretty. According to a study by researchers at the
University of California, Los Angeles, more than 25 percent of children
aged 12 to 17 in that state are viewed as “gender nonconforming” at
school. And the numbers are likely to keep rising.
The findings, based on surveys of almost 1,600 youth in California,
divided students into three categories: gender conforming, highly gender
nonconforming, and “androgynous” for children who were neither
masculine nor feminine. Of those, just 1,200 were identified as “gender
conforming,” while the rest fell in the other two categories. |
Article: http://bit.ly/2mif51M
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
LANCASTER, Pa. —The largest conference of Mennonite Church USA has parted
ways with the denomination over concerns that include increasing acceptance of
practicing homosexuals in leadership positions.
The Lancaster Mennonite Conference, which consists of over 170 congregations, officially left the Mennonite Church USA on Jan. 1
following a vote two years ago to no longer affiliate with the group. “[D]ifferences over whether LMC can remain in this affiliation have
reached a breaking point,” Chairman Keith Weaver wrote to the
Constituency Leaders Council in 2014, according to the Mennonite World
Review. He told that outlet that, at that time, the Conference Board of
Bishops wanted to reevaluate its relationship with the denomination in
light of concerning developments, such as the licensure of a lesbian
woman by the Mountain States Conference, and the decision by Eastern
Mennonite University to review—and ultimately change—its policy
prohibiting practicing homosexuals from working at the institution. Read
reports here and here.
150 Mennonite leaders had also signed a letter supporting the allowance of members to be in same-sex relationships.
Listening meetings were consequently held about the matter, and over
700 attendees submitted responses surrounding the question of whether or
not to end the affiliation. Church polity, vision and governance were
also stated reasons for the proposed departure. In November 2015, it was announced that 82 percent of the leaders of the Conference had voted to leave Mennonite Church USA.
“[This] announcement will likely be received in very different ways
by leaders and congregations of Lancaster Mennonite Conference and
across the denomination. Leaders were encouraged to interact with others
in loving and respectful ways and to pray for the Lord’s leading in the
life of [the Lancaster Mennonite Conference] in the days ahead,”
Conference leadership said in a statement.
The separation did not take effect until Jan. 1, 2018.
“We are disappointed that Lancaster Mennonite Conference made the
decision to leave MC USA, because it is painful to separate from part of
our body in Christ. We will miss our mutual sharing of valuable gifts
and perspectives, and lament our diminished capacity for fellowship
across difference,” Ervin Stutzman, executive director of Mennonite
Church USA, said in a statement on Friday.
“The official separation does not mean that all of our relationships
with Lancaster Conference will end,” he added. “Members of the
conference will continue to participate in some MC USA program agencies
such as Everence and MHS Alliance. And there are many other ways that
members will cross paths in the coming years, particularly in
inter-Mennonite programs such as Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite
Disaster Service, and Mennonite Economic Development Associates.” As previously reported,
in 2014, Hartville Mennonite Church in Lake, Ohio likewise decided to
leave Mennonite Church USA over concerns about homosexuality.
“We felt that Mennonite Church USA and [our church] were going in
different directions concerning scriptural authority and holiness,” Ross
Miller, pastor of the church, told Mennonite World Review. According to the membership guidelines
of Mennonite Church USA, the denomination holds that homosexuality is a
sin and that marriage is defined as the union of a man and a woman.
Pastors are also prohibited from officiating same-sex ceremonies. “We hold the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective (1995) to
be the teaching position of Mennonite Church USA. ‘We believe that God
intends marriage to be a covenant between one man and one woman
for life’ (Article 19),” the guidelines read. “We hold the Saskatoon
(1986) and Purdue (1987) statements describing homosexual, extramarital
and premarital sexual activity as sin to be the teaching position of
Mennonite Church USA.”
Citing the divide over same-sex
relationships, Stoltzfus said most people within MC USA still hold a
traditional view of marriage as between a man and a woman “but there’s
more room and space within MC USA in our polity for this diversity or
disagreement.”
He added there
is a strong belief among the 36 congregations in the Atlantic Coast
Conference that “we need to engage and invite this marginalized group of
people into an opportunity to worship with us and others are not
comfortable with that.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
A believer prays in the ruins of a church in Al-Hasakah destroyed by Daesh (ISIS) militants.
The
persecution and genocide of Christians is “worse than at any time in
history” according to several studies on the oppression and murder of
Christians worldwide. Although it has not dominated the headlines in
mass media, for tens of millions of Christians across the globe, each
day they live professing their faith in Christ is one that can end up in
violent attack, kidnapping, imprisonment or death.
“More Persecuted Than Any Other Faith Group”
Pakistani Christian women mourn their loved ones after an Easter Sunday suicide bombing killed over 70 Christians.
“Blessed [are] they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:10.
“More
than 200 million Christians in the 50 countries where it is most
difficult to be a Christian experience persecution because of their
faith.” (source).
So
concluded the report from Open Doors USA, an aid organization that
raises awareness about persecution of the Christian faith while at the
same time supplying Bible, training church leaders and providing aid to
those believers suffering for their faith.
A
2-year study by Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic persecution
watchdog group, arrived at the same conclusion – the atrocities
committed against Christians is by far at its worst:
“In
terms of the numbers of people involved, the gravity of the crimes
committed and their impact, it is clear that the persecution of
Christians is today worse than at any time in history. Not only are
Christians more persecuted than any other faith group, but
ever-increasing numbers are experiencing the very worst forms of
persecution. It is in this context that this report concludes that in 12
of the 13 countries reviewed, the situation for Christians was worse in
overall terms in the period 2015–17 than within the preceding two
years. An especially notable example of this was China where intolerance
was on the rise, as evidenced by a renewed clampdown on dissident
clergy and destruction of churches as well as crosses and other
Christian symbols.” (source).
Saints Are Suffering in Many Nations
The World Watchlist map identifies the countries with the most extreme forms of Christian persecution.
“But
before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you,
delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought
before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.” – Luke 21:12.
According to Open Doors’ annual World Watch List,
where they track and rank the “restricted nations”, countries where
persecution takes place on a regular basis, there are 30 countries where
believers experience high, very high or extreme persecution, here are
some of the stories from the many who have suffered:
Nigeria – Rise of Islam Leads To Attacks on Christians
Rescuers carry a body amidst the carnage from a twin car bombing attack by Muslim militants in Jos, Nigeria.
Nigeria
ranks 12 on the World Watch List and has seen a dramatic increase in
the oppression of Christianity all due to the rise of Boko Haram, the
Islamic terrorist group that has pledged allegiance to Islamic terror
group ISIS. Among the atrocities:
In
December 2017, Islamic herdsmen slaughtered 100 Christians in the
northeastern state of Adamawa. The herdsmen, who are aligned with Boko
Haram, razed villages – destroying homes and stores during their
rampage. Additionally, the group may have had assistance from the
government as a military jet bombed and destroyed a Lutheran church
during the attack. The government claimed the bombing was accidental. (source).
This massacre comes on the heels of an October terror attack in which
48 Christians were killed when Muslim gunmen attacked predominately
Christian villages for nine days straight. (source).
In Jos Nigeria, where Beginning and End previously reported of mass graves of murdered Christians,
a mother and her two children were kidnapped and executed by Muslim
herdsmen. The Islamic attackers ambushed and shot to death Rebecca
Daniel Choji, her 16-year-old daughter Suzanna Daniel Choji, and her
29-year-old son Joel Choji, in Jos village, Riyom Local Government Area
(LGA) in Plateau state, as the family members were on their way to a
health facility in Vwak village.“We have been under attack constantly
from these Fulani herdsmen because we are Christians,” Gyang Dahoro, 55,
an area COCIN congregation elder, told Morning Star News by text
message. “Our villages have been ravaged, and our houses and churches
destroyed, and in most cases these herdsmen have taken over the villages
where Christians have been displaced.” (source).
Egypt – A Wife Loses Her Husband At Church
Michael and Sara Ragheb with their 3-year old baby. Michael was killed in a church bombing.
On
Palm Sunday, April 9, 49 people were killed in two ISIS attacks on
churches in Egypt. Michael Nabil Ragheb, the father of a 3-year-old and
deacon in Saint George Church in Tanta, was one of them. His widow,
Sara, shared her story of loss:
When Sara heard a loud blast and everything in the church went dark, she thought the end of the world had come.
“Michael,
my husband, had sensed something like this was going to happen. The day
before, on our daughter’s third birthday, he told us he thought he
would soon be among the martyrs in heaven.”
That morning, the
dreary premonition led Michael to ask his wife and daughter to sit in
the last bench, in the back of the church—instead of close to him, in
the front row.
“I was a bit surprised about that,” Sara says, “But
looking back, I know that it was God’s will.” After leaving his family
on the last bench of the church, Michael put on his deacon rope and went
to the front of the church, where he was in charge of the singing that
day.
“He asked me to wait for him after the service. But he never
came back.” Sara will never be able to wipe the horrible images of what
happened next from her memory. It was about ten minutes past nine. All
of the sudden, I heard the sound of a big explosion, the church shook
like there was an earthquake. The smoke filled the church, and it became
dark. I heard people screaming. I was screaming, too. I was screaming
the name of my husband and rushed to the place of the deacon choir,
where I hoped to find him alive.”
It’s difficult for Sara to
continue her story. “What I saw on my way to him was horrible, like a
massacre had just taken place. The bodies of dead church members and
pools of blood. Then I saw my husband. I was in shock. He was just lying
there, like the others. Gone to heaven like he had sensed would
happen.”
Sara and Michael had been married for four years. Sara
and daughter Priscilla will have to continue their lives without their
beloved husband and father. “I loved him so much,” Sara says. She sees
it as a sacrifice for Christ, but not one she has to deal with alone.
“Despite everything, God has put comfort, peace and great grace in my
heart.” (source).
Pakistan – Armed Guards at Church Services
Armed guards protect Bethel Memorial Church in Quetta Pakistan, the site of a recent suicide bombing.
Pakistan,
which ranks #4 on the World Watch List, is so prone to violence against
the Christian faith that many churches keep armed guards on patrol
during Sunday services. Christmas season is a time of extreme danger as
Muslim terrorists increase their violent attacks.
On December
17, 2017, 2 Muslim militants with ties to ISIS attempted to enter
Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, but guards stopped the men
at the door. One of the attackers set off his explosives, killing nine
people. The other assailant fled.“It’s very hard. This is my mother’s
childhood home,” a Pakistani Christian who works with the Alive aid
network said. “The members of the church are people whom we know and
love. Our phones are ringing endlessly. Some of our Bible College
students have lost family members too. Just now, a woman wept on my
shoulder. She just kept repeating ‘Lord, have mercy, have mercy, have
mercy’, and then, ‘Lord enable us to lift our voices and cry out ‘Jesus
is Lord!’ so that we may stand and not be stopped from being in church.
They cannot stop us!’” (source).
Pakistan’s
blasphemy laws are used disproportionately to punish Christian
believers for not following Islam. “There are hundreds of Pakistanis
imprisoned falsely under blasphemy laws. In even more recent days, there
was a Pakistani Christian who at the end of December, right before New
Year’s, was arrested because people said they found ripped up pages of
the Quran in front of his home, and his name was on those pages,” said
Bruce Allen of Forgotten Missionaries International. (source).
Somalia – “This is the Somali 9/11”
The aftermath of a bombing by Muslim terror group Al-Shabab in Mogadishu, Somalia.
In October 2017, al Shabab, a Somali Islamic terror group known for hunting and murdering Christians, launched the worst terror attack in the country’s history.
Militants set of several thousand ponds of military grade explosives in
the capital city of Mogadishu, killing 300 and wounding 500. The attack
was in direct response to President Trump’s increased military attacks
on the terror group. In response, the President doubled the U.S. military presence in the nation.
North
Korea is the perennial No. 1 offender in terms of extreme Christian
persecution. Officially an atheist state (although its leader Kim Jung
Un is viewed as a god), Christians are “hostiles” and are subject to all
manner of atrocities by the government:
“Most Christians worship
secretly. If discovered, they are “taken to political camps (kwanliso);
crimes against them in these camps include extra-judicial killing,
extermination, enslavement/forced labor, forcible transfer of
population, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, persecution, enforced
disappearance, rape and sexual violence and other inhuman acts.” CSW
reports documented cases of believers being “hung on a cross over a
fire, crushed under a steamroller, herded off bridges, and trampled
underfoot.”” (source).
Choi Hangkyuk, a Christian, escaped a North Korean prison camp and now shares his story on the streets of Los Angeles.
Choi
Hangkyuk, a Christian who escaped a prison camp and defected from North
Korea gave insight into the life of a Christian:“We couldn’t raise our
voice during a service, we couldn’t sing out loud during a worship …
that was hard,” Choi told Fox News through a translator. “Also, we had
to hide so that other people could not see us. There were about nine
people,” he said. “I couldn’t do mission work because we had to keep it
secret that we had a church. If that information had leaked, we could
have faced the death penalty.” (source).Arrested
for his faith, Choi found himself sentenced to Camp 22, a notorious
concentration camp that is part of an 87-mile prison colony. Inmates
there are often tortured as beatings, gouged eyes and scarred faces are a
regular occurrence:
“Prisoners are forced to
stand on their toes in tanks filled with water up to their noses for 24
hours, stripped and hanged upside-down while being beaten or given the
infamous “pigeon torture” — where both hands are chained to a wall at a
height of 2 feet, forcing them to crouch for hours at a time.Tiny
rations of watery corn porridge leave inmates on the brink of
starvation, and many hunt rats, snakes and frogs for protein. Some even
take the drastic measure of searching through animal dung for undigested
seeds to eat. Beatings are handed out daily for offenses as simple as
not bowing down in respect to the guards fast enough. Prisoners are used
as practice targets during martial arts training. Guards routinely rape
female inmates.” (source).
Hope in The Midst of Tribulation
Sunday service at one of the thousands of thriving underground churches in China.
“Blessed
are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice,
and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so
persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” – Matthew 5:11-12.
The
Lord Jesus Christ prophesied that the church would face persecution
that would only increase with time. By God’s grace, rather than shrink
in the face of violence and oppression, the Christian faith is
flourishing in many restricted nations:
A baptism at an underground church service in Iran. More Muslims are converting to Christianity than ever before.
The
Church in Iran is one of the fastest growing in the world. More
Iranians have come to Christ in the last 20 years than in centuries
prior. In 1979 there were an estimated 500 Christians from Muslim
backgrounds. Today there are hundreds of thousands. (source).“Despite
severe persecution by the Iranian government against underground
churches, God’s Word is spreading like a wildfire all over Iran.” To the
extant that Iranian evangelical Pastor Reza Safa “believes that Iran
will be the first Islamic nation to convert to Christianity.” (source).
China,
which ranks 39 on the World Watch List of worst persecutors, has seen
an absolute explosion in the underground church movement. Although
Christianity is permitted in the country, churches are required to
register with the state who can dictate how sermons are done, install
24-hour video monitoring in church buildings and in one case even
ordered a church to replace an image of Jesus with a communist
leader. Violators can be arrested, beaten and have their church buildings razed.
Despite political pressure the protestant community has swelled from 1
million to an estimated 60 million believers today. And it is predicted
that in the coming decades china will have the largest Christian
population on Earth. (source).
Pray For Persecuted Brothers And Sisters Across The Globe
The Bible says: “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:26).
If you are living in a nation where you have full freedom to worship,
thank God for your liberty and pray for your brothers and sisters
suffering all over the world. Continue to pray for their safety,
strength and faith despite the evil the world inflicts on them. And pray
for the thousands of underground churches all over the world that are
literally risking life and limb to share the light of the Gospel in the
darkest corners of the earth.
“We are troubled on
every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always
bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are
always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus
might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in
us, but life in you.” – 2 Corinthians 4:8-12.
“FIRST FRUITS” TWISTED Paula White-It’s January And Paula White Is Pushing Her First Fruits Scam Once Again! It should not surprise us one bit that just a few days removed from
peddling her year-end “Get Some Favor Offering Scam”
that predictable Paula White is at it again pushing her First Fruits
Offering Scam on New Year’s Day. In this riveting program Wolf
Tracker explains why Paula White’s signature teaching on the subject of
First Fruits is nothing but a con game.
APOSTASY ALERT: PAULA WHITE, TRUMP SPRITUAL ADVISER, PUSHES VIEWERS TO GIVE HER “ONE MONTH’S SALARY” TO KEEP THE BLESSINGS COMING
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Word of Faith Heresy “Pastor” Paula White is hustling her First Fruits financial false doctrine once again.
In
one of the most brazen pleas for money of the early year, Presidential
Spiritual Advisor and Prosperity Gospel promoter Paula White implored
her followers and fans to give her ministry a “first fruits offering” of
as much as one month’s salary – even though there is absolutely no
Biblical basis for such an offering whatsoever. This type of shameless
greed in the church, all based on heretical doctrines, are just one sign
of the growing apostasy in the church today as it moves from sound,
Biblical teaching, in favor of man and woman-made false doctrines and
New Age witchcraft.
The False Teaching of “First Fruits” – the Prosperity Gospel Strikes Again
According to reports:
Popular
televangelist Paula White is urging her followers to donate a “first
fruits” offering of up to their entire salary for the month of January
to enjoy “blessings” for the rest of the year or suffer the
“consequences” of failing to follow God’s command.
“Each January, I
put God first and honor Him with the first of our substance by sowing a
first fruits offering of one month’s pay. That is a big sacrifice, but
it is a seed for the harvest I am believing for in the coming year. And
God always provides!” White explains on her website.
She explained the difference between the tithe, usually 10 percent of earnings, and the first fruit donation.
“The
difference between tithe and first fruit, first fruit is all of it,”
she told congregants at the New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka,
Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
“All of what? Well, if you want to bring God all of one day’s salary,
one week’s salary or one month’s salary, that’s between you and God. … I
try to bring a month’s salary, but at the very least every year I give
God a week’s salary.” (source).
Here is a video where White attempts to make a compelling case for “The Principle of First Fruits”:
This entire teaching is based on the false and unbiblical Prosperity Gospel heresy.
This idea teaches that by giving money to a pastor’s ministry, a person
can “unlock” and “release” amazing blessings from God in the form of
money, material items, career success, health and better appearance. In
other words, it makes the blessings of The Lord contingent on how much
money a person is willing to give to that particular pastor.
Beginning and End has given extensive coverage to this heretical teaching
as it emboldens false pastors to manipulate their congregations into
giving them their hard-earned money to support the luxurious,
extravagant lifestyles these millionaire pastors lead.
Paula White has made her First Fruits teaching an integral part of her sermons and numerous products.
Oftentimes,
the way this doctrine is established is by taking Old Testament verses
from the Mosaic law out of context. White does this in her video
marketing campaign and her website:
“There is a
specific principle that I am deeply convicted about and MUST share with
you after years of studying the Word of God. This principle is found
from early on, throughout the Bible, and it supernaturally unlocks
amazing opportunity, blessing, favor and divine order for your life. It
is the basis or underlying support for your success in 2018. It is GOD’S
PRINCIPLE OF FIRST FRUITS. All Firsts belong to God. When you honor
this principle it provides the foundation and structure for God’s
blessings and promises in your life, it unlocks deep dimensions of
spiritual truths that literally transform your life! When you apply this
everything comes in divine alignment for His plan and promises for you.
When you don’t honor it, whether through ignorance or direct
disobedience there are consequences. “(source).
From
the onset, White sets up “The First Fruits Principle” as the key to
unlocking “amazing opportunity, blessing, favor and divine order in your
life.” Giving money to her is the key to having any type of material
success or happiness for the year 2018. She also warns that if one does
not give their first fruits offerings (even through ignorance) “…there
are consequences.” (source).
According to White, those “consequences” are found in Joshua 7:
“The
principle of FIRSTFRUITS is all about honoring God by putting Him first
IN EVERYTHING. The reason is God lays claim to all firsts. So, when you
keep for yourself something that belongs to God you are desecrating
what is to be consecrated to God. It reminds me of Joshua chapter 7,
“But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things,
for Achan took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord
burned against Israel.”
Devoted things and First things have the
exact same meaning; they are the irrevocable giving over to the Lord.
They are the things that belong to God and God alone. Again, honoring
God with the principle of FIRST FRUITS will open up something powerful I
have seen consistently in my own life and the lives of those around me
since I received revelation and was mandated by God to teach it. It
releases GENERATIONAL BLESSING, OPPORTUNITY, FAVOR, & SUPERNATURAL
BLESSINGS.” (source).
White has become a figure on the global stage as a key adviser to President Donald Trump.
This
is a very dangerous teaching. It is essentially telling the
viewer/congregant: “if you do not give your first paycheck or series of
paychecks to God you are desecrating your earnings and offending The
Lord.” This is essentially scaring people into giving. In Joshua 7, the
Israelites were entering the Promised Land by force, as God commanded
the mighty military leader Joshua to do. Having just conquered Jericho
(thanks to The Lord’s supernatural miracle of bringing the impregnable
walls of that city down), the Israelites found themselves defeated by
the people of Ai, the second city they attempted to conquer. Before the
battle of Jericho, God gave Joshua a very specific battle plan and
forbade the Israelites from taking any of the material goods of the
people of Jericho because the city and its goods were to be “accursed”
or devoted to God (Joshua 6:17). However, they failed at this:
“But
the children of Israel committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for
Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the
tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the Lord
was kindled against the children of Israel. And
Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the
east of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country.
And the men went up and viewed Ai.
And they returned to Joshua,
and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or
three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to
labour thither; for they are but few. So
there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they
fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty
and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto
Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the
people melted, and became as water. And
Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the
ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put
dust upon their heads. And Joshua said,
Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over
Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us?
would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies!
For
the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it,
and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and
what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel
hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I
commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have
also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their
own stuff.” – Joshua 7:1-11.
Understanding Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Passages
The Bible predicts the apostasy – the falling away from sound, Biblical teaching to doctrines of demons.
What
Paula White (and many other Prosperity Gospel false preachers) tend to
do is look at a passage like the one above and extract a universal
principle from it, such as: “Since Achan was clearly in disobedience
as he took an item from Jericho, we as Christians today should be sure
that never touch any “first” payment or item we receive because it
belongs to God.” However, this is not the proper way to interpret and teach the Bible. The account of the battles of Jericho and Ai are descriptive passages:
historical accounts in which we as believers are to learn from the
general principles in how they relate to the Lord Jesus Christ and
living one’s life as a believer.
In the case of the battle of AI
there are very powerful lessons to be learned. Before the battle of
Jericho, Joshua consulted with God on every detail of the plan for
battle. Before Ai, Joshua consulted only with his spies and military
advisors who assured him they did not even need their full forces
because it was a small city. The Christian life is one of continued
reliance on God through faith in Jesus Christ.
When the battle was
lost, rather than “re-strategizing” or marshaling the full might of the
Israelite army, Joshua “rent his clothes” and fell on his face for
hours in repentance (and the elders of Israel joined him in this
repentance). This is a foundational teaching. It is when one recognizes
their sin before God, that they can be saved: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation…” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
The
question in life is not if you will sin, but when. All people are
sinners (Romans 3:23). But what can bring salvation, God’s blessing and
Spirit is having a heart that feels sorrow over your sin. This is what
The Lord wants from all people – repentance. Understanding your guilt
before God and trusting in the sacrifice He sent – Jesus Christ, The Son
of God – for your forgiveness. And as soon as Joshua repented, God
responded and told him of his error and the sin of Achan.
This passage is NOT a prescription
for giving. It is not a universal command that every time a person
receives their first paycheck they should give it to their pastor. The
command to leave every item in Jericho for God was a specific
instruction for that event, not a command for all believers for all
time. These are descriptive passages. A prescriptive passage is one that
is intended for all people for all time, for example:
“All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all.” – Isaiah 53:6.
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” – Romans 10:13.
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;” – Ephesians 5:25.
These
are passages that are intended to direct all believers at any time.
They have clear universal application and were not directed towards one
specific person in Scripture. And when we look to the Bible’s
prescriptive teaching on giving we find:
“Every man
according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly,
or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” – 2 Corinthians 9:7.
Christians
give based on how they feel in their heart to give. Offerings in church
should not be done reluctantly or because of “necessity.” There is no
required giving amount in church. But that has not stopped the apostate
preachers all over the world from fleecing their fans and viewers using
Scriptures ripped from context.
The Biblical Meaning of First Fruits
“And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you,
and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the
firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest:And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. And
ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without
blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord.” – Leviticus 23:9-12.
The
first fruits offering accompanied the feasts of the Mosaic law. It was a
command to reserve a part of the first reaping of the barley harvest
for God and the priesthood. While this was indeed practices, Christians are not under the Mosaic law
or the Old Covenant. Born again believers are under the New Covenant,
which was founded upon the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross (for a
detailed explanation see our article: “Are Christians Understanding The Law And Gospel”).
The Bible explains that the feasts and rituals of the Mosaic law were
all a foreshadow of the work and person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah:
“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” – Colossians 2:16-17.
When John the Baptist saw Jesus for the first time He made a direct connection between Jesus and the Passover feast:
“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” – John 1:29.
John
taught that the Passover – which commemorated the blood of a lamb being
put over the doors of the Israelites so that the avenging angel would
spare their lives during the Exodus – was a foreshadow of Jesus Christ.
Just as the blood of the lamb saved the lives of the Israelites at that
time, Jesus Christ is “The Lamb of God” whose blood provides eternal
life for everyone in the world who believes. This is foreshadowing or
commonly referred to as a type and shadow.
Similarly, Jesus Christ, in His resurrection from the dead is the first fruits of the true harvest – God’s Church:
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” – 1 Corinthians 15:20-23.
Jesus
Christ is the true First Fruits (and just as His crucifixion took place
on the Feast of Passover, His resurrection took place on the day of the
feast of First Fruits). False teachers like Paula White are forced to
basically ignore these passages because they refute whatever type of
financial scheme they are trying to hustle on their unsuspecting fan
base.
The End Times Apostasy – False Teachers Invade The Church
Many churches are misusing the feast of first fruits for shameful gain.
“But
there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be
false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And
through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of
you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not.” – 2 Peter 2:1-3.
The
Bible prophesied that false prophets and teachers would infiltrate the
church as the end times approached. And they could be identified by
their lust for money and material wealth. Notice the scripture says that
these wolves in sheep clothing would use “feigned words” to “make
merchandise of you” – employing false teaching to pimp their followers
for millions of dollars. Beginning and End has detailed the excess of Word of Faith heretics like Creflo Dollar (who had congregants literally dropping cash at the pulpit which he then danced on top of, in addition to requesting $65 million in offerings to purchase a new jet), I.V. Hilliard who flaunts his numerous luxury cars, pressured his followers to buy him a new helicopter and charged $100 for a “ticket” to his wife’s birthday party, Joel Osteen and many others.
The Bible says:
“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But
they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For
the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted
after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” – 1 Timothy 6:6-11.
Note
that the passage emphasizes that Christians “gain” by being content
with whatever they have in life – no matter how great or how little. And
it exposes the focus on money and material gain as evil. Word of Faith
false teachers repeatedly emphasize earthly wealth and “increase” with
“sowing seeds” of money and using “power words” – as the key to
unlocking God’s power and attaining blessings. This not Biblical
doctrine but are the basic foundation of New Age witchcraft – where
specific actions on our part initiate superantural results. In
Christianity, God blesses us on His own. The Lord does not need us to
“activate” or “unlock him.”
Many churches are promoting the “health and wealth” false teaching to compel payments from their followers. (source)
Jesus Christ said:
“Lay
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where
your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21.
Time
and time again, the Bible teaches Christians not to focus on money and
material gain. There is no “secret” to “unlocking” financial blessings
in the Bible. A Christian may be rich and well off, or they could be
poor and struggling all their lives. The true reward and riches are
heavenly ones – because their souls are saved, and they have eternal
life through faith in Jesus Christ. Do not be deceived.
Pray for Paula White
Pray
for Paula White and the many other Prosperity – Word of Faith false
preachers to repent. Rather than twisting God’s Word for shameful gain,
they should be on their knees, begging God for forgiveness for their
heretical teachings and leaving the pulpit.
And pray for their
congregations and the millions of tv/internet viewers who follow these
false teachings on the hope they will receive their “harvest” or
“breakthrough.” Many churches are in desperate need to understand the Biblical Gospel – that God has redeemed us freely.
No down payment, deposit or “seed money” is required to be blessed by
The Lord. Pray for discernment and God’s Spirit to fill the hearts and
minds of those caught up in the Prosperity Gospel. And that rather than
giving their hard-earned salaries to false teachers that they instead
put their faith, trust and hope in the true First Fruits of all who
believe – Jesus Christ.
_____________________________________________________ SEE ALSO: http://christiannews.net/2018/01/08/paula-white-urges-followers-to-give-first-fruits-offering-of-a-day-week-or-months-wages/ EXCERPTS:
“We are demanding life to your purpose,” she declared. “And with
obedience to this first fruits instruction, which is putting God first
now, your purpose, your year, your prosperity, and your power will have
life and be resurrected!”
“When you apply this, everything comes in divine alignment for His
plan and promises for you. When you don’t honor it, whether through
ignorance or direct disobedience, there are consequences,” White also
said.
However, as reported by Leonardo Blair with Christian Post, some believe
that the concept of first fruits is being abused and used as
manipulation to coerce the hearer or reader to give the person money in
the name of God.
To say that ‘laying down a seed’ so that God will make someone rich, or
that you can pay off God to bless future plans, is an abusive lie from
adherents of the prosperity gospel,” writes the site Compelling Truth.
“To give sacrificially is to follow in the example of the widow of Mark
12:41-44, and is commendable as long as it isn’t coerced.”
(Paula White) She has been married three times. Her first marriage was to Dean Knight,
who she married as a teenager. The two have a son together, named
Bradley. In 2007, White divorced her second husband, Randy White, and in
2015, she married Journey rocker Jonathan Cain, who has likewise been married three times.
______________________________________________________ SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT PAULA WHITE, INCLUDING: https://ratherexposethem.org/2016/12/trump-inauguration-to-feature-prayer-of.html
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Some scientists are hoping they can create their own god.
A
former Google and Uber engineer and registered a new church with the
IRS whose stated goal is to “develop and promote the realization of a
Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.” This new religion which
anticipates advanced machines ruling over humanity as gods, has more
support in the Silicon Valley community than many may think. And it
lines up with one of the most stunning prophecies of the book of
Revelation.
The Way of The Future Church – A Religion To Worship Artificial Intelligence
Anthony Levandowski, the founder of the Way of The Future Church wants to spread the “Gospel” of a coming computer god.
Anthony Levandowski, the founder of Way of The Future Church,
made a fortune developing self-driving automobile technology at a
startup which was eventually acquired by Uber (and that same technology
is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit). Wired magazine, in an exclusive
interview with Levandowski reported the following about the “church’s”
filing documents:
“The documents state that WOTF’s
activities will focus on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a
Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer
hardware and software.” That includes funding research to help create
the divine AI itself. The religion will seek to build working
relationships with AI industry leaders and create a membership through
community outreach, initially targeting AI professionals and “laypersons
who are interested in the worship of a Godhead based on AI.” The
filings also say that the church “plans to conduct workshops and
educational programs throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area beginning
this year.”
… “What is going to be created will effectively be a
god,” Levandowski tells me in his modest mid-century home on the
outskirts of Berkeley, California. “It’s not a god in the sense that it
makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a
billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going
to call it?” (source).
Levandowski’s
hope is that Way of The Future can start spreading the news and
discourse on the inevitable Artificial Intelligent supercomputer that
will so surpass human intellect, it will essentially be a deity. He even
calls this news “the Gospel” and is developing their own bible which he
calls “The Manual.” The Way of The Future will have a liturgy and even a
physical place of worship. All this preparation is necessary for what
the founder or “Dean” (his official title in the church) sees as
preparation for the most powerful being in creation:
“If
you had a child you knew was going to be gifted, how would you want to
raise it?” he asks. “We’re in the process of raising a god. So let’s
make sure we think through the right way to do that. It’s a tremendous
opportunity.” (source).
While the notion may seem farfetched, Beginning and End reported on this desire for tech futurists years ago in our article: The Singularity: Science’s Quest for Immortality and Satan’s Deception. In that article we reported on the Global Future 2045 Conference
which focused on the date when the human body will physically combine
with machine technology to enable a person to live outside of the
biological body and achieve “immortality” by downloading their
consciousness into a machine avatar.
This would all be possible
once humanity achieved the Singularity – the moment computer surpass
humanity in intelligence and become so powerful they can rule over us
all. The conference, held, in Russia, celebrated the inevitable takeover
of society by computers and how humans could leverage this
technological ascent to promote “life extension” – avoiding death via digital download or copy of one’s consciousness into computers.
Here was the promo video for Global Future: 2045:
All this lines up with Way of The Future’s philosophies. However, they prefer to call the Singularity “the Transition”:
“Humans
are in charge of the planet because we are smarter than other animals
and are able to build tools and apply rules,” he tells me. “In the
future, if something is much, much smarter, there’s going to be a
transition as to who is actually in charge. What we want is the
peaceful, serene transition of control of the planet from humans to
whatever. And to ensure that the ‘whatever’ knows who helped it get
along.” (source).
Denial of The God of the Bible
Many news stories point to the day artificial intelligence will “replace God.”
The
fervor for the Singularity or Transition includes a vehement denial of
the God of the Bible and the Christian faith. To little surprise,
Levandowski used a moment in his rare interview to knock Christianity:
“There
are many ways people think of God, and thousands of flavors of
Christianity, Judaism, Islam…but they’re always looking at something
that’s not measurable or you can’t really see or control. This time it’s
different. This time you will be able to talk to God, literally, and
know that it’s listening.” (source).
Note
that while the thousands of flavors of Christianity are seemingly
inferior because it’s looking at something “not measurable” –
Levandowski ignores his own hypocrisy as he creates a “church” to
worship technology that does not exist yet and may not for decades or
ever at all. Such is the danger of humanity combining its inherent
sinful nature with intellect and technology – abject denial of the God
who created us all. The book of Romans details this exact sinful
downward spiral:
“For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold
the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal
power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” – Romans 1:18-20.
What
this passage explains is that all people inherently know that God
exists. Nature, all on its own with its vast complexity, amazing
uniformity and inexplicable existence (the odds of a planet having the
conditions to permit carbon-based life and support it with water, proper
temperature, UV levels, gravity, etc. are incredibly minute in the
extreme) all prove to people that there is a God. So, no one of sound
mind living in this world has an excuse for denying that this world had a
Creator. The passage continues:
“Because that, when
they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And
changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to
corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping
thing. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.
Amen.” – Romans 12:18-23; 25.
Human
beings were made with a desire to worship. Even when a person denies
God outright, they will still find an outlet for the worship by giving
glory to created entities rather than The Lord who is Creator. Just as
the Bible states, Levandowski branded Christianity a lie and suggests
that this time – with Artificial Intelligence, a believer can speak to
God “literally” – mocking Christianity as a fictional belief system. All
this even though WOTF is creating a church, urging people to spread its
“gospel”, developing a Bible and mimicking Christianity in numerous
aspects as it awaits its “Godhead.”
The Image of The Beast – The Ultimate A.I. God
The Bible predicted this “new religion” of A.I. thousands of years ago in the Book of Revelation.
The
Book of Revelation chronicles the rise and fall of the Antichrist – the
satanically-empowered false messiah who will rule over the Earth in a
global government in the final years before the Second Coming of The
Lord Jesus Christ. There are some interesting parallels between its
details and the future A.I.-dominated world envisioned by the Silicon
Valley tech leaders. Revelation 13 describes a cashless future society
where all purchasing and selling is done via “mark” in the hand or
forehead of every person. Worship of the Antichrist will be mandatory
under punishment of death.
But rather than worship the leader
directly an “image” will be created which people can direct their praise
to. The False Prophet, the religious cohort of the Antichrist who will
oversee the worship of the false messianic figure, will, through
supernatural satanic means, be able to give “life” to this image:
“And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And
deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that
dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which
had the wound by a sword, and did live.
And he had power to give
life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should
both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the
beast should be killed.” – Revelation 13:13-15.
This
image – whether it be a statue or robot will have consciousness and be
“alive.” It will speak and be able to determine who should be executed
for violation of the Antichrist end times global religious system. Even
though Revelation was written around 96 AD, the Bible was able to
accurately predict the same technology futurists of today eagerly
anticipate. And note that the Bible prophesies that this ultimate
artificial intelligence will be worshiped – precisely what Way of The
Future is looking forward to.
Silicon Valley Tech Moguls and the Quest for Immortality
Major publications question if technology can lead us to immortality.
Levandowski
is not alone in seeking salvation via technology. In recent years, many
tech moguls in Silicon Valley have invested millions in “life extension
technologies” – studies and products that can not only extend life past
the normal average span of today but ultimately lead to immortality.
Billionaire Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, along with a
host of other celebrities and tech luminaries, recently launched the National Academy of Medicine’s Grand Challenge In Health Longevity – which will distribute $25 million towards projects with the goal to “end aging forever.”
Google has already invested over $1.5 billion dollars in their own life extension technology firm Calico
– short for California Life Company. Other Silicon Valley giants such
as Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, Peter Thiel (cofounder of PayPal
and one of the original investors in Facebook) and Bill Gates (who in an
online chat stated one of his main remaining goals was “don’t die”) are focused on developing solutions to aging and death itself.
Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, has invested over $1Billion dollars in life-extension technologies.
All this desire for an artificial godhead and life extension goes back to the Garden of Eden and Satan’s original false promise:
“Now
the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said,
Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But
of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath
said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:1-5.
When
Satan tempted Eve, he promised that despite God’s clear warning “she
would not die” if she at the forbidden fruit but would instead “…be as
gods…” And since that time, the Devil has enticed humanity with that
same deceitful proposition – that through our own efforts, intelligence
and might we can become godlike and achieve eternal life. Of course,
that never happened. Silicon Valley has now turned its sights on
achieving this.
Hollywood has also promoted this concept to the masses with movies like Transcendence, a film starring Johnny Depp as the first scientist to merge his consciousness with computers and become godlike:
Trust in Eternal Life Through Jesus Christ
When we humble ourselves before God, we receive Divine wisdom and the gift of eternal life.
If
you are not a Christian and have put your faith in science to explain
the origin of the universe and humanity (e.g., the Big Bang, evolution,
etc.), ask yourself why are the most brilliant tech experts in society
forming a church? Why are they adopting the exact terminology and
structure of the Christian faith? Why are they preparing worship for an
entity that does not even exist at present? It is because there is a
spiritual battle taking place that even the most scientifically inclined
minds are drawn into. And 2,000 years ago, the Bible accurately
predicted the road Way of The Future and other Singularity believers are
considering. Do not be deceived.
There is a way to immortality. There is a way to have your soul transcend this world. And it is through eternal life in Jesus Christ.
The same Bible that prophesied there would be an all-powerful
artificial intelligence acting as a god, also prophesied that all people
– everyone of us, are destined for eternal punishment because of our
sin. But because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, where He
took the punishment for our sins – all who believe in Him receive free forgiveness and eternal life. This is the message Satan has tried to hide from humanity since the beginning:
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:In
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image
of God, should shine unto them.” – 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.
Do
not be blinded by the world’s advances. We have no reason to fear,
science, technology or looking to the future and what we can achieve.
But there is no replacement for the true God of the Bible. Hopefully one
day those in the “church of A.I.” will be wise enough to realize this.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Diversity and multiculturalism in Bernie Sanders’ backyard. No doubt there will come reports claiming that Abukar Ibrahim is
mentally ill, etc. But randomly attacking elderly people with a machete
is something we have seen from Islamic jihadists before.
“Burlington man charged with motel machete attack,” by Dom Amato, WCAX, January 5, 2018 (thanks to Doc):
SHELBURNE, Vt. (WCAX) A Burlington man faces attempted murder charges after allegedly attacking a woman with a machete.
“It’s pretty scary yes,” said Carl Mcmahon.
Mcmahon is staying at Harbor Place in Shelburne. Harbor Place
provides temporary emergency housing with services, run by the Champlain
Housing Trust. Early Friday, police responded to calls of a man with a
knife smashing out car windows.
“On arrival we found that this person who was reported to have a
knife, had actually attacked an elderly female,” said Corporal Jon
Marcoux of Shelburne Police.
That female, was a 73-year-old Meals on Wheels volunteer who was
dropping off meals on the regular route. It is unclear what provoked the
attack, but police say 32-year-old Abukar Ibrahim was the one with a
machete. He attacked the woman who sustained multiple injuries. She was
sent to the hospital, and later released.
“He barricaded himself in the room. After two and a half hours, he came out on his own,” said Marcoux….
“I feel not safe,” said Mcmahon.
Ibrahim is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, on the charge of
attempted murder. He is being held at the Chittenden Regional
Correctional Facility.
Among the 16 billboards include the statements “Abortion is a blessing;” “Abortion is sacred;” “Abortion is a family value;” “Abortion is hope;” “Abortion is a second chance;” “Abortion is liberty;” “Abortion is health care;” and “Abortion is good medicine.” VIDEO OF CHRISTIANS WITNESSING IN FRONT OF “PRETERM” FACILITY:
CLEVELAND, OHIO’S LARGEST ABORTION FACILITY “PRETERM” LAUNCHES
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The largest abortion facility in Ohio has launched a billboard
campaign in an effort to urge readers “to reflect on the powerful role that
abortion plays in people’s lives.”
The facility, called Preterm, has purchased 16 billboard locations around the Cleveland area to “spark conversation” surrounding its belief that abortion is necessary as it allows women to live however they want without a child getting in the way. Preterm offers surgical abortions up to 19 weeks gestation—almost five months—and medication abortions up to nine weeks. “Abortion is a normal and necessary part of people’s lives. People from all walks of life have abortions for many different reasons. And each person’s experience is valid,” the MyAbortionMyLife website reads. “To a parent struggling to make ends meet, abortion may be the best way to love and care for your family. To a young person, abortion may be the chance to graduate. To all of us, abortion is foundational to a just society where we can live life on our own terms,” it asserts.
Each billboard contains a different message in support of abortion, with the phrase “Abortion is” and then a blank that is completed by a thought. Among the 16 billboards include the statements “Abortion is a blessing;” “Abortion is sacred;” “Abortion is a family value;” “Abortion is hope;” “Abortion is a second chance;” “Abortion is liberty;” “Abortion is health care;” and “Abortion is good medicine.”
Preterm has also been urging supporters to share graphics with the same messages on social media, and to also create discussion with the hashtag #MyAbortionMyLife.
However, while some abortion advocates have called the campaign “refreshing,” “beautiful” and “stigma-busting,” others have conversely used the effort as a way to declare that “abortion is murder.”
“Your abortion ends your baby’s life. #MyAbortionMyLife,” one Twitter user wrote.
“There’s no way to change the #abortion narrative. Those 60 million dead babies can’t come back to life. #MyAbortionMyLife,” another wrote.
One even created their own series of statements, including, “Abortion is selfish;” “Abortion is baby-killing;” “Abortion is barbaric;” “Abortion is not an option;” and “Abortion is sin.”
O’Connor
As previously reported, female government leaders have claimed for years that abortion is necessary to allow women to work outside of the home and pursue careers. In the 1992 ruling of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Reagan appointee, asserted that abortion has kept women in the workforce.
“The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives,” she wrote on behalf of the court. “For two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail.”
In June 2016, while speaking before a gathering of Planned Parenthood supporters, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton similarly said that she believes legalizing abortion has helped to keep women in the workplace, thereby aiding the economy.
“[Roe v. Wade] transformed [women] because it meant that women were able to get educations, build careers, enter new fields, and rise as far as their talent and hard work would take them—all the opportunities that follow when women are able to stay healthy and choose whether and when to become mothers,” she asserted.
Clinton opined that birth control has likewise helped the economy because it has kept women in the workforce instead of at home raising children.
“Today, the percentage of women who finish college is six times what it was before birth control was legal,” she stated. “Women represent half of all college graduates in America and nearly half our labor force, and our whole economy, then, is better off.”
Talmage
However, Christians have long decried abortion in America as being the savage murder of innocent children. Even in 1872, preacher Thomas De Witt Talmage wrote in his book “The Abominations of Modern Society:
“Herod’s massacre of the innocents was as nothing compared to that of millions and millions by what I shall call ante-natal murders. You may escape the grip of the law, because the existence of such life was not known by society, but I tell you that at last God will shove down on you the avalanche of His indignation, and though you may not have wielded knife or pistol in your deeds of darkness, yet, in the day when John Wilkes Booth and Antony Probst come to judgment, you will have on your brow the brand of murderer.”
In an introductory lecture to his course on obstetrics in 1854, Philadelphia doctor Hugh Lennox Hodge also explained that if a woman were to come to a medical doctor in pursuit of an abortion, “he must, as it were, grasp the conscience of his weak and erring patient and let her know in language not to be misunderstood that she is responsible to her Creator for the life of the being within her.”
“The procuring abortion is ‘a base and unmanly act,’” Hodge also said, quoting in part text from a court ruling of his day. “It is a crime against the natural feelings of man, against the welfare and safety of females, against the peace and prosperity of society, against the divine command ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ It is murder.”
_______________________________________________________
SofTouch Manual Aspiration Method for Early Abortion and Miscarriage BY DR. FLEISCHMAN & STAFF REMOVES YOUR “PRODUCT OF CONCEPTION TISSUE” (A/K/A UNBORN BABY) https://www.earlyabortionoptions.com/
“SOFT TOUCH”-New abortion technique being marketed as “natural” … y’know, because murdering unborn babies is the most natural thing in the world to abortion advocates
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
(Natural News) Is taking the life of an unborn baby something that is considered to be “natural?” If you ask the developers of a new device that can supposedly abort a baby in just five minutes, then the answer is yes. The device, officially called SoftTouch, was developed back in the year 2011 by a Harvard-trained physician named Doctor Joan Fleischman. According to EarlyAbortionOptions.com, the procedure is typically used by women who are anywhere from five to ten weeks pregnant, although women who are 12 weeks pregnant can also use SoftTouch so long as a doctor says it is okay.
The abortion procedure uses a small aspirator and a flexible tube to remove the fetus from the mother’s womb in just three to five minutes. The website touts that SoftTouch produces minimal discomfort for the woman, and even describes the procedure as “noninvasive and natural,” as if ripping an unborn child out through the birth canal like it’s a cancerous tumor is something that is “natural.” Nevertheless, the website talks about SoftTouch as if it’s the greatest invention mankind has ever created, claiming that it has numerous advantages over the abortion pill and that “it is completed in one visit and our patients leave the office knowing that the pregnancy is over.” The truth is that regardless of the methods used to perform an abortion, the act of ripping a baby out of the womb and then justifying it by claiming that it’s “not a human” or “just a clump of cells” is sick and highly unethical. Indeed, the way in which some people (particularly those on the left) talk about abortion as if it’s as natural as putting peanut butter on a slice of toast is sick, as well as a clear sign that our country, in many ways, is spiraling down a path of moral decay. (Related: Abortion is a big business: Nearly $1 billion per year is generated from murdering babies.) Last week, The Daily Wire reported on a college student from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who admitted that taking the life of a two-year-old would be perfectly okay. The student’s argument, which was made on camera, was centered on the twisted idea that there’s “no difference” between killing a tree and killing a two-year-old child, since, as the student put it, both the child and the tree lack the ability to communicate like an adult and therefore lack sentience.
“The fact of the matter is, if without communication, we have no way of knowing if you’re sentient or not,” the student explained in the video, which was filed by a Students for Life Regional Coordinator named Brenna Lewis. “I mean, it’s no different than this tree. It’s alive. But is it sentient?” When Lewis pointed out the obvious flaw in comparing a two-year-old human being with a tree, the student responded with more nonsense. (Related: The goal of the abortion industry is to save money through depopulation and make a profit through the sale of baby body parts.)
“Okay, can the two-year-old talk to me?” he asked. “In some instance, I’m fairly certain that is. But generally speaking the child still has the inability to communicate. And until we determine that as such, at what point does sentience become an issue, we can’t really debate whether or not that is the situation or not.”
Obviously, there is a severe lack of respect for human life that is spreading like a plague throughout the United States, and it appears to be getting worse. As conservatives, we must restore the idea that the lives of the unborn are precious, and that they deserve to be protected. After all, the basis for any civil society is how well its people treat the weakest and most vulnerable among them.
Follow more news on the abortion industry at Abortions.news.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The desire for freedom can never be entirely extinguished from the human heart.
“How Iranian protesters are skirting the government’s tech clampdown to continue their fight,” by Hollie McKay, Fox News, January 5, 2018:
Protesters have taken to the streets in Iran,
demonstrating against the country’s clerical regime. As many
participants are being arrested, and even killed, there is a growing
call of appreciation and more support from the Trump administration. While the already repressive Iranian government works to further shut
down social media that helps fuel communications among thousands of
protestors, the predominantly young, college-aged crowds in the street
are scrambling to stay ahead with a variety of counter-censorship
maneuvers.
“Iranians are used to changing. Remember we were the first ones using
Twitter for political purposes in the Green Revolution in 2009, when
Twitter was still largely unknown,” one activist, Ali, told Fox News.
“Then it was blocked. Then Facebook came and then it was blocked. Now
Instagram and Telegram.”
Iranian officials are blocking access by essentially building a
“massive firewall,” according to Dave Chronister, managing partner of
Parameter Security and an “ethical hacker” who has worked with the U.S
government. But access hasn’t been completely cut – leaving the
protesters room to maneuver. “The Iranian government is blocking access to certain IP ranges
altogether (such as news sites) and at the same time they are also
allowing certain sites to be accessed,” said Chronister. “But they are
using content filtering to block what they consider to be risky or
subversive, for example Twitter hashtags. So the Iranian activists are
using different ‘tunneling’ methods to hide their traffic through
encryption and therefore bypass government restrictions – for instance,
they use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).”
The VPN encrypts web traffic, so it obscures information that makes it harder for Iran’s security apparatus to catch or block.
One activist in Tehran told Fox News he has downloaded about 10 VPNs,
and just one is working. While VPNs can be quickly shut down when
detected, activists can just as quickly scramble to find more. Some have
also since turned to other platforms such as the anonymity network Tor,
which allows users to conceal their location.
But it remains a dangerous game.
“Iranian activists are using a ton of proxies to hide their true
identities. A proxy is basically an outside IP address that masks your
true one, so if an Iranian citizen uses a proxy to access the internet,
he or she will appear to Iranian authorities to be coming from another
country like Australia or Hong Kong,” said Jeff Bardin, CIO of
Treadstone 71 and a former Air Force intelligence operative.
“This makes it difficult for the Iranian government to block the
connection without closing off the internet completely. But using a
proxy doesn’t mean you are completely safe, the Iranian government has
the ability to shut them down and find out who is using them.”
Should that shut-down happen – which is of increasing concern since
the Revolutionary Guards Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said Wednesday
that “when cyberspace was controlled, we saw a decrease in sedition,”
the activists have a backup plan.
“Every day we know at 5pm to gather in identified places: the main
square in every city and the four main squares in Tehran,” one protest
leader in Tehran told Fox News in a telephone interview on Thursday.
Protesters suffered a setback when access to the encrypted phone
messaging app Telegram was shut down last weekend. The app is hugely
popular in Iran, given there are more than 40 million registered
accounts there. Dubai-based Telegram founder Pavel Durvov claimed his
app was blocked after he refused to adhere to the regime’s demands to
shut down certain channels used by “peaceful protesters.”…
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
No, non-Muslims always get the brunt of it. This grotesque attempt
yet again to portray Muslims as victims after a jihad attack is just the
latest of many, as this is a tried and tested response straight out of
the playbook for Muslim spokesmen in the West, but it nonetheless still
amounts simply to an attempt to deflect attention from where it should
be. Authorities should be challenging the Muslim community in Ireland
today about the extent of sympathy for the Islamic State within their
communities, since the Islamic State has called for stabbing attacks in
the West. They should be calling upon Muslims in Ireland to begin to
back up their words of condemnation for the attack with real action to
counter the idea that it is a righteous deed to commit violence against
the kuffar. Instead, as always, we get this disgusting victimhood
posturing. Remember: no Muslims were stabbed in Ireland, nor should they
be, but from the tenor of this article, you might get the impression
that an “Islamophobe” had targeted Muslims in Ireland. It’s a total
inversion of reality.
“Muslims call on Irish people to resist blaming Islam for attacks,” by Sorcha Pollak, Irish Times, January 5, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Fazel Ryklief watched in dismay as news of the Dundalk
attack that left one man dead and two injured spread on Wednesday
morning. Meanwhile, a tide of anti-immigrant abuse directed at Muslims
had begun to swell on social media . “In the end, irrespective of whether he was Syrian or Egyptian, it
all came down to him being a Muslim. Islam always gets the brunt of it,”
said Ryklief, who works at the Islamic Foundation of Ireland in Dublin.
“I want to stop feeling guilty about being a Muslim every time
someone with a Muslim name does something like this,” he told The Irish
Times, adding that he was not surprised that some media outlets
immediately concluded that the alleged attacker was a Syrian.
The majority of Muslims condemn all violence, and abhor the killing
of anyone, he went on: “As soon as the police mention the words
‘terrorist attack’ people go mad. They don’t wait to establish the
reasons.”
However, the “terrorist” rhetoric that has surrounded Muslims in
recent years is having this effect, feared Dr Saud Bajwa, a consultant
at Galway University Hospital and spokesman for the Galway Islamic
Cultural Centre.
Change in attitudes
Dr Bajwa says the vast majority of Irish people treat Muslims with
respect but that he has noticed a change in attitudes in recent years.
“There is no doubt that these days people are quick to jump to
conclusions,” he said.
“On our side, we’re always praying sincerely that the latest attack
is not a Muslim thing. I still think there is a wider good out there in
Ireland but there are always people who look at me with doubt because I
am a Muslim.”
“This fear is from the unknown – when everyone is shouting that these
people are dangerous, even the mildest unfamiliarity can create a sense
of fear. I love this society I’ve chosen to live in.
“But if we don’t block this stereotyping and if decent people don’t
get involved and ask people to use their intellect rather than jumping
to conclusions, things will get worse,” said the Galway-based
consultant.
Ali Selim, spokesman for the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin’s
Clonskeagh, says Irish people should take heed of their own recent
history with Britain before drawing conclusions about members of the
Muslim community.
“It was just yesterday that if you crossed the Border and spoke in an
Irish accent you’d immediately have your papers checked. Even today
people still talk about the cartoons of Irish people in the British
press. I believe this history will stop most people from stereotyping.”…
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of State has
announced its annual designation of “Countries of Particular Concern”
(CPC) based on observance of ongoing violations of religious freedom.
“In far too many places around the globe, people continue to be
persecuted, unjustly prosecuted or imprisoned for exercising their right
to freedom of religion or belief,” spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday.
“Today, a number of governments infringe upon individuals’ ability to
adopt, change or renounce their religion or belief, worship in
accordance with their religion or beliefs, or be free from coercion to
practice a particular religion or belief.”
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 requires the U.S.
secretary of state to name each year the countries that have been the
most egregious violators of religious freedom. Secretary Rex Tillerson
has decided to re-designate from the year prior the countries of Burma,
China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as CPCs.
Pakistan has also been placed on a “special watch list” due to ongoing persecution throughout the past year.
As previously reported,
the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had
recommended last April that the Department of State designate 16
countries as CPCs, 10 of which have been cited by the government for
years. The six that the Commission sought to be added were the Central
African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria and Vietnam.
While it applauded the Department of State for again adding the 10
designations to the CPC list, the Commission expressed disappointment
that Tillerson only added Pakistan to a watch list, and that the other
countries of recommendation were not mentioned at all.
“The designation of these countries is a key step in ensuring
continued U.S. engagement in support of international religious freedom.
Although USCIRF agrees with the 10 countries on the State Department’s
list, it does not go far enough. Secretary Tillerson should have also
designated the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia,
Syria, and Vietnam,” Chairman Daniel Mark said in a statement.
“Pakistan continues to harass its religious minorities, has
state-sanctioned discrimination against groups such as the Ahmadis, and
tolerates extra-judicial violence in the guise of opposing blasphemy,”
he explained. “As USCIRF has said for many years, Pakistan should be
designated by the State Department as a CPC.”
As previously reported, the Commission outlined in its 2017 report it
is illegal in Pakistan to defile the Koran or to blaspheme the Islamic
prophet Muhammad. Those who violate the law suffer devastating
consequences, such as life imprisonment or the death penalty.
“Forced conversion of Hindu and Christian girls and young women into
Islam and marriage, often through bonded labor, remains a systemic
problem,” the Commission also noted. “Hindu and Christian women are
particularly vulnerable to these crimes because of the societal
marginalization of and lack of legal protections for
religious minorities, combined with deeply patriarchal societal and
cultural norms.”
While Pakistan did not make it to the State Department’s CPC list
this time, most persecution watch groups agree with the U.S. government
that countries such as North Korea, Iran and Sudan are among the worst
violators of religious freedom.
“In this totalitarian communist state, Christians are forced to hide
their faith completely from government authorities, neighbors and often,
even their own spouses and children,” Open Doors USA said in its 2017 “World Watch List”
in which it named North Korea as the most dangerous place to live as a
Christian. “Entire Christian families are imprisoned in hard labor
camps, where unknown numbers die each year from torture, beatings,
overexertion and starvation.”
“In Iran, Christianity is considered a Western influence and a threat
to the Islamic identity of the Republic. Converts to Christianity from
Islam make up the largest group of Christians and experience the most
persecution,” it also outlined. “Arrest and violence are commonplace for
anyone engaged in Christian ministry or evangelism.”
State Department Spokesperson Nauert said that the purpose of naming
certain countries of concern is to focus on the work needed to effect
change in those nations.
“The protection of religious freedom is vital to peace, stability,
and prosperity. These designations are aimed at improving the respect
for religious freedom in these countries,” she outlined. “We recognize
that several designated countries are working to improve their respect
for religious freedom; we welcome these initiatives and look forward to
continued dialogue. The United States remains committed to working with
governments, civil society organizations, and religious leaders to
advance religious freedom around the world.”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
At last, some common sense in U.S. foreign policy. This means several hundred million dollars that the Taliban and the Haqqani Network won’t get. We can only hope that there will be much, much more of this sort of thing to come.
“U.S. suspends at least $900 million in security aid to Pakistan,” by Arshad Mohammed and Jonathan Landay, Reuters, January 4, 2018 (thanks to Inexion):
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday
it was suspending at least $900 million in security assistance to
Pakistan until it takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the
Haqqani network militant groups. The U.S. State Department announced the decision, saying it reflected
the Trump administration’s frustration that Pakistan has not done more
against the two groups that Washington says use sanctuaries in Pakistan
to launch attacks in neighboring Afghanistan that have killed U.S.,
Afghan and other forces.
The department declined to say exactly how much aid would be
suspended, saying the numbers were still being calculated and included
funding from both the State and Defense departments.
Pakistan has long rejected accusations that it fails to tackle the
militants battling the Kabul government and U.S.-led foreign forces in
Afghanistan, from sanctuaries on its side of the border.
On Friday, Pakistan criticized what it called “shifting goalposts” and said the U.S. suspension of aid was counter-productive.
U.S. officials said two main categories of aid are affected: foreign
military financing (FMF), which funds purchases of U.S. military
hardware, training and services, and coalition support funds (CSF),
which reimburse Pakistan for counter-terrorism operations. They said
they could make exceptions to fund critical U.S. national security
priorities.
CSF funds, which fall under Defense Department authority, are covered
by the freeze, said Pentagon spokesman Commander Patrick Evans, saying
Congress authorized up to $900 million in such money for Pakistan for
fiscal year 2017, which ended Sept. 30. None of that money has yet been
disbursed.
The freeze also covers $255 million in FMF for fiscal year 2016,
which falls under State Department authority and whose suspension has
already been announced, as well as unspecified amounts of FMF that went
unspent in earlier fiscal years.
Briefing reporters, U.S. officials stressed the suspension did not
affect civilian aid to Pakistan and that the money could go through if
Islamabad took decisive action against the groups.
“Our hope is that they will see this as a further indication of this
administration’s immense frustration with the trajectory of our
relationship and that they need to be serious about taking the steps we
have asked in order to put it on more solid footing,” a senior State
Department official told reporters.
“We’re hoping that Pakistan will see this as an incentive, not a punishment,” he added.
The Trump administration briefed Congress on its decision on Wednesday….
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
He says Pakistan has been getting less than $10 million a year. USAID
says that the U.S. gave Pakistan $778 million in 2016 alone. And then
Abbasi added that whopper about Pakistan being on the “forefront” of the
fight against jihad terror. “War is deceit,” said Muhammad. In any
case, Abbasi, fine. Just send it all back, and the U.S., if common sense
prevails, won’t send any more.
“Pakistan PM calls US aid ‘insignificant’ as Trump threatens to cut it off,” by Haroon Janjua and Julian Borger, Guardian, January 5, 2018:
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, has
declared himself mystified by US threats to cut off funding, saying that
US financial assistance was “very, very insignificant” and that
Pakistan was “on the forefront of the war on terror”.
In an interview with the Guardian, Abbasi said that reports that the
US was considering cuts of up to $2bn in security assistance were
bewildering because the total aid Pakistan – civilian and military –
actually received was a tiny fraction of that amount.
“I am not sure what US aid has been talked here,” Abbasi said in his
office in Islamabad. “The aid in the last five years at least has been
less than $10m a year. It is a very, very insignificant amount. So when I
read in the paper that aid at the level of $250m or 500 or 900 has been
cut, we at least are not aware of that aid.”
Donald Trump used his first tweet of 2018 to threaten to withhold aid
to Pakistan because of what he called its “lies and deceit” over
terrorism, claiming: “They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in
Afghanistan, with little help.” The president has that the US had
“foolishly” given Pakistan $33bn over the past 15 years.
According to the US Agency for International Development, the US gave
$778m to Pakistan in assistance in 2016, of which 35% was military and
the rest economic….
Wilhelmus Valkenberg is a Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at
the Catholic University of America. He completed his Ph.D. in Theology
at Catholic Theological University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. He
worked as an Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University
Maryland and Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. He authored World Religions
in Dialogue: A Comparative Theological Approach and Sharing Lights on
the Way to God.
Some quotes from Dr. Valkenberg:
“What is important in the way in which both Fethullah Gulen and the
Hizmet tradition engages in this dialogue with others is exactly this
exactly combination of being rooted in their own tradition and working
from their own tradition and taking the fruits of their own tradition
and trying to open that up to the broader public.”
“Gulen, somewhere in his writings says, if you take that as a kind of a
hermeneutical key to interpret the Quran, then you can say, well, that
means for us, contemporary Muslims that we have the obligation to live
peacefully together with others and we have to promote everything that
contributes to peace among people of religion and we have to work
against everything that works against peace. So, I think that is a quite
good example of how he interprets his own sources.”
“One of the things that the Hizmet Movement does is to help us to see
how you can translate these deeper sources of Islam into the modern
world. When you compare it with most other Muslim groups that you hear
much about in the media, I think this is one of the few groups that
really combines openness to a dialogue between cultures and religions,
on the one hand, and a rootedness in their own tradition on the other. ”
“When political power becomes too much of a goal for people, they are
under the threat to become detached from their own roots.’
CHRISTIAN/MUSLIM ECUMENISM?~PBS BROADCASTS CRUSADE MYTHS FOR THE HOLIDAY
SEASON~UNITY PRODUCTION FOUNDATION’S FALSE PROPHETS OF ISLAMIC
MULTICULTURALISM~WILHELMUS VALKENBERG’S ASSOCIATION WITH TURKISH
FETHULLAH GULEN & CHARTER SCHOOLS OF ISLAMIC INDOCTRINATION
SEE OUR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT GULEN’S U.S. CHARTER SCHOOLS HERE:
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
“The advertising for the new film” The Sultan and the Saint “suggests it presents revisionist history in line with the modernist ecumenical agenda,” wrote in 2016 Dr. Benjamin J. Vail (OFS), an American Secular Franciscan. The finished film, shown to this author
and others last April, thoroughly vindicated Vail, and is now offering
hackneyed Crusade myths to the public via PBS, which broadcast the film
December 26 and now offers it for online viewing. Focusing on the 1219 encounter between St. Francis of Assisi and Sultan Al-Malik al-Kamil during the Fifth Crusade, the film reflects popular falsehoods about the Crusades accepted even by President Barack Obama. Ignoring reality, the PBS film website
declares that the “film sheds light on the crusades origins of
dehumanizing rhetoric towards non-Europeans and non-Christians” that
“resulted in four generations of escalating conflict.” Falsely
suggesting that current global hostilities involving Muslims result from
insufficient dialogue, the website declares that the film “inspires
solutions for the negative atmosphere we find ourselves in today.” PBS’ online portrayal of Fifth Crusade historical figures is equally fallacious, such as in the statement that St. Francis wanted “to oppose the bloodshed of the Fifth Crusade.” Meanwhile, crusader commander John of Brienne has base motives in PBS’ description:
“Like many who were motivated to join the Crusades, John might have
thought he could improve his lot and gain land, nobility and fame in the
Holy Land.” At the website of the film’s pro-Islam producer, Unity Productions Foundation (UPF), Cardiff University professor and film expert Helen Nicholson cynically states that “for these people, the Crusade is a gift from God.”
Nicholson appears in the film alongside journalist Paul Moses, author of The Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace, and his prior statements clearly show his influence upon the film. In various 2013 book presentations, he presented Francis as a pacifist, as someone who “quietly opposed the Crusade,” and as someone who “never spoke in a disparaging way about Islam or Muslims.” By contrast, Francis’ era
was a “time when the church had become corrupt and violent” and knew
how to “cherry pick through scripture” in order to find “supposed
Biblical grounds” for the Crusades.
While Francis appears in Moses’ book presentations as out of character
for a crusading Christendom, supposedly al-Kamil’s “actions show him to
be a good Muslim.” The sultan “reflected Islamic traditions, including
respect for Christian holiness, and also his constant pursuit of
alternatives to war.” Referencing Saladin,
the famed Muslim leader during the Third Crusade, Moses argued in a
December 20 interview that the sultan’s benign behavior “came straight
out of Islamic teachings, which the sultan, a nephew of Saladin, knew
well.”
The film confirms the 2016 suspicions of Vail, who noted that the
“film’s advertising implies that the crusades were evil both in intent
and in practice,” a “common misconception used as a slur against the
Church.” Leading Crusades historian Thomas F. Madden, for example, has contradicted
Nicholson. The “crusading knights were generally wealthy men with
plenty of their own land in Europe,” and the “Crusades were notoriously
bad for plunder.”
As Madden elaborates, the Crusades
were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious
knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in
which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian
world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to
defend itself or be subsumed by Islam.
The Crusades were a Christian reaction to centuries of Islamic jihadist aggression that directly targeted the Catholic Church and Francis’ followers. Frank M. Rega, a Secular Franciscan and author of Francis of Assisi and the Conversion of the Muslims, has noted that an army of 11,000 Muslims sacked Rome itself in 846 and desecrated the tombs of saints Peter and Paul. Rega’s fellow Secular Franciscan Vail noted that Muslims later in 1240 attacked the Franciscan Poor Clare monastery in Assisi, which the order’s founder herself, St. Clare, successfully defended.
Contrary to Moses’ claims, Rega has observed that “unreserved support of the crusade had become normative in the Order” of St. Francis. Rega’s book
noted Francis’ praise for “holy martyrs died fighting for the Faith of
Christ.” Vail also observed that “one leader of later crusades was St. Louis IX, the king of France, a Franciscan tertiary who is now patron saint of the Secular Franciscan Order.”
Francis personally reflected such sentiments when he crossed the front
between the Christians and Muslims fighting around Damietta, Egypt, on a
personal evangelization mission to the sultan. Rega noted Francis’
words to the sultan: “It is just that Christians invade the land you
inhabit, for you blaspheme the name of Christ and alienate everyone you
can from His worship.” Francis’ frank words reflect that he “was fully
prepared for martyrdom” and initially experienced rough treatment in
Muslim hands, as the film portrays. As Rega’s book has noted, al-Kamil
had vowed that “anyone who brought him the head of a Christian should be
awarded with a Byzantine gold piece.”
Contrary to Moses’ assertions, Francis’ behavior exemplified the common practice of his order in which friars often sought martyrdom by direct rhetorical challenges to Islam. Reflecting the negative judgment
of Catholic saints upon Islam throughout history, Francis in Rega’s
book tells the sultan that “if you die while holding to your law
[sharia], you will be lost; God will not accept your soul.” As Notre
Dame University Professor Lawrence Cunninghamhas observed, Francis “saw himself and his friars as Knights of the Round Table fighting a spiritual crusade.”
Meanwhile the film juxtaposes Crusader atrocities like the 1099 sack of
Jerusalem with al-Kamil’s often tolerant behavior in yet another
cinematic distortion of the past. Following Moses’ lead, the film
presents such tolerance as the logical result of Islamic doctrine, but
the biography of Moses’ hero Saladin tells a different story. As
Crusades historian Andrew Holt
has noted, “[o]ften Saladin could be just as brutal as the less noble
minded military rulers of his era, but those actions are typically not
highlighted in modern accounts.”
Saladin’s atrocities include the 1169 slaughter
of 50,000 disarmed Sudanese soldiers in Cairo, Egypt, in breach of a
surrender agreement after he had suppressed their rebellion. Following
his 1187 decisive defeat of Crusaders in the Holy Land at the Battle of Hattin, Saladin had executed with religious ritual
some 230 captured Knights Templar and Knights of St. John Hospitallers.
After Hattin, Saladin considered sacking Jerusalem like the Crusaders
before him, but its desperate defenders warned him that without a pardon
guarantee they would fight to the bitter end and destroy the city’s
Muslim holy sites. He therefore relented and ransomed the city’s population,
but an estimated 8,000 could not pay and became slaves, among whom the
women suffered mass rape, a practice common among armies of the era.
The film simply offers no context for its portrayal of a brutal era in
which warfare rules held that besieged cities that did not surrender
like Jerusalem in 1099 were subject to massacre and pillage. Muslims later repaid the Crusaders in kind during the 1291 sack of Acre,
and the era’s Muslim armies often committed atrocities against
surrendered city populations in violation of pledged mercy. By contrast, some evidence suggests to Holt that crusaders during the First Crusade that captured Jerusalem refrained from the common medieval practice of raping captive women.
In the midst of such violence, al-Kamil presents an appealing figure in
the film, yet he might not have been an ordinary Muslim. Concurring with
Moses, Cunningham has noted that when Francis went to al-Kamil,
ultimately the “caliph did receive him kindly; he may have been a Sufi
— a Muslim mystic — who want to identify mystically with the love of
Allah.” Al-Kamil “may have had an instinctual sympathy for Francis, whom
he probably saw as a holy man.” Al-Kamil also had a history of tolerance toward his Coptic Christian subjects in Egypt, although even this leniency had its limits under repressive Islamic dhimmi norms for non-Muslims.
The attention given by Catholics like Moses to Sufis like al-Kamil has a tradition, the Catholic writer and former academic William Kilpatrick has observed:
“To the extent that they are interested in Islam, Catholic thinkers
tend to be focused on its mystical, Sufi manifestations rather than on
its mainstream, legalistic, and supremacist side.” Many Catholics like
Francis’ namesake, the current Pope Francis, want “to put a Christian face on Islam.”
Yet Catholic writer John Zmirak has analyzed
respectively the doctrines of Islam and Christianity’s founders to
demonstrate that “ISIS Are to Muhammad What Franciscans Are to Jesus.”
No celluloid interfaith, multicultural agitprop from PBS can change
these facts by repackaging shopworn canards about Christianity for the
Christmas season. The question remains for a forthcoming article, what
is the nature of the people at UPF and its associates who helped produce
the delusion of The Sultan and the Saint?
_______________________________________________________
Wilhelmus Valkenberg, Professor of Theology & Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, on Fethullah Gulen and Hizmet (aka the Gulen Movement)
WILHELMUS VALKENBERG’S ASSOCIATION WITH TURKISH FETHULLAH GULEN & CHARTER SCHOOLS OF ISLAMIC INDOCTRINATION
Wilhelmus Valkenberg is a Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at
the Catholic University of America. He completed his Ph.D. in Theology
at Catholic Theological University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. He
worked as an Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University
Maryland and Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. He authored World Religions
in Dialogue: A Comparative Theological Approach and Sharing Lights on
the Way to God.
Some quotes from Dr. Valkenberg:
“What is important in the way in which both Fethullah Gulen and the
Hizmet tradition engages in this dialogue with others is exactly this
exactly combination of being rooted in their own tradition and working
from their own tradition and taking the fruits of their own tradition
and trying to open that up to the broader public.”
“Gulen, somewhere in his writings says, if you take that as a kind of a
hermeneutical key to interpret the Quran, then you can say, well, that
means for us, contemporary Muslims that we have the obligation to live
peacefully together with others and we have to promote everything that
contributes to peace among people of religion and we have to work
against everything that works against peace. So, I think that is a quite
good example of how he interprets his own sources.”
“One of the things that the Hizmet Movement does is to help us to see
how you can translate these deeper sources of Islam into the modern
world. When you compare it with most other Muslim groups that you hear
much about in the media, I think this is one of the few groups that
really combines openness to a dialogue between cultures and religions,
on the one hand, and a rootedness in their own tradition on the other. ”
“When political power becomes too much of a goal for people, they are
under the threat to become detached from their own roots.’
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
“Respect for religious difference is a foundational ethical teaching
in the Qur’an and the Hadith sources of Islamic scripture,” states a
video caption at the website of Unity Production Foundation’s (UPF) film The Sultan and the Saint.
This statement is indicative of the naiveté and leftist, multicultural
ideologies animating the individuals involved with this previously reviewed distorted depiction of the Crusades.
Catholic University of America Professor Wilhelmus Valkenberg and others double down in the video on such dubious beliefs ignoring Islam’s oppressive dhimmitude
for non-Muslims. Islam’s “Prophet Muhammad was very aware of religious
differences” and “saw them not a as a source of contention but of joy
and of common relationship with God,” he states. St. Bonaventure
University’s Center for Arab and Islamic Studies director Michael Calabria references the hackneyed, flawed argument that a supposedly tolerant Quran 2:256
verse is “foundational for Islam.” He declares that “Christian
communities, Jewish communities continued to thrive under Islamic rule,”
notwithstanding copious modern evidence of Islamic oppression. Valkenberg’s credibility concerning Islam is hardly serious given his close relationship with the shadowyTurkish Islamist movement of Fethullah Gülen. Overlooking the role in recent decades that Gülenists played in dismantling Turkey’s secular republic, Valkenberg has previously abetted
the Gülenists self-presentation as an interfaith humanitarian
organization. Thus the Gülen movement emphasizes “service as something
that is very basic to the Islamic faith” and is “very de-central,” “a
very personalized faith…it’s not Islamism in the political sense of the
word.” Elsewhere Valkenberg has summarized
Gülen’s teaching as “Muslims living peacefully together with people of
other faiths; that is the normal situation.” Meanwhile, “both in
Christianity and in Islam, there is a tradition that says, well, you
should stay away from political power.” Another online video at The Sultan and the Saint website features Imam Mohamed Magid and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Magid is the former president of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)-derived
Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an organization whose
radicalism included his bestowing an ISNA “diversity award” upon an anti-Semitic imam. McCarrick’s presence alongside Magid is ironic, given ISNA’s opposition to homosexuality and lurid documentation of McCarrick’s homosexual past. Perhaps this is another example of the strange affinity noted by Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer of homosexuals for Muslims as fellow “victims.” Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah and Hamza Yusuf also have a website video
endorsing the film. Bin Bayyah has made numerous statements supporting
terrorism against Israel by groups such as Hamas, as well as violence against American forces
during the Iraq war, and supports Islamic restrictions on speech.
Although in more recent years Yusuf likes to emphasize his moderation,
he likewise has a troubling radical past.
The film website also has a video with Patrick Carolan, executive director of the Franciscan Action Network (FAN). FAN partnered with UPF in developing TheSultan and the Saint, while UPF in turn was in 2017 the recipient
of FAN’s Cardinal McCarrick Award. Perhaps reflecting the loose
doctrine of the award’s namesake, Carolan in the video says with casual
ecumenism that “there are many journeys to God, many paths we can take.”
Leftist journalist Naomi Klein has written in the New Yorker
about her Vatican meeting with Carolan. He is among the “biggest
troublemakers within the Church for years, the ones taking Christ’s
proto-socialist teachings seriously.” She records him claiming that
“Vladimir Lenin supposedly said that what the Russian Revolution had
really needed was not more Bolsheviks but ten St. Francises of Assisi.”
Carolan’s background certainly recalls Lenin more than St. Francis.
The inaugural 2014 Cardinal McCarrick Award went to the former Service
Employees International Union (SEIU) Secretary/Treasurer Eliseo Medina, an avowed socialist, while the 2016 award went to Al Gore’s daughter, Karenna. While representing the George Soros-funded “Catholic” front-group Catholics United, Carolan himself has advocated that the Knights of Columbus cease opposing same-sex “marriage.” Leftist politics are also evident in UPF’s Sultan and the Saint Peacemaking Award. Recipients include Jacob Bender, the only Jewish leader of a chapter of the radical Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Sister Maureen Brown likewise “supports CAIR San Diego,” notwithstanding this CAIR chapter’s extensive radical history and duplicitous legal tactics.
UPF’s other “peacemakers” include the southern Illinois imam Abdul Haqq, whose deceptive presentation of Quran 5:32-33 ignores the death penalty in these verses for any “villainy in the land” against Islam. Meanwhile, media reports that the homosexuality-affirming California priest Jon Pedigo has a played a key role in making his San Jose parish the “most gay-friendly diocese in the nation.” NPR reporter Tom Ashbrook is notorious for his longstanding anti-Israel biases and more recent sexual harassment charges.
Austin, Texas, Presbyterian minister Jim Rigby combines many of the views dear to UPF and its associates. He has written
that the “Palestinian people are suffering genocide” during the
“extinction of the Palestinian people as a cultural and political entity
with a homeland of their own.” During a 2009 Austin rally
for Gaza, he spoke of Israelis who “teach people to kill and to rob
other people’s land” with “state-sponsored terrorism” while the “true
jihad is the struggle for peace and justice.” Israel, along with the
United States, also have offended
his equal opportunity sensibilities concerning nuclear weapons; he has
declared that “it’s okay for Christian and Jewish nations to have
nuclear weapons, but not Muslims” in places like Iran.
Domestically, Rigby’s church has supported same-sex “marriage” and even accepted the atheist journalism professor Robert Jensen as a member. On Christianity, he has argued
that the “core insights of the religion are basically socialist and
even, I think, anarchist.” His superficial Crusades pseudo-history has
also a similarly Marxist flavor:
I doubt very seriously that the primary motive for the
Crusades was rescuing the holy lands from Islam. I suspect the booty
captured by “pious” European kings was much more to the point.
The views of actual experts consulted by UPF for The Sultan and the Saint such as Smith College Professor Suleiman Mourad often are hardly more substantial. While condemning American “Islamophobia” and “militarism,” he has advanced the absurd claim
that around the world “Muslims, in their majority, have…established
liberal democratic constitutions.” This analysis ill comports with his past examination of the recurring role of jihad throughout Islamic history.
Meanwhile, journalist Paul Moses, who formed with his bookThe Saint and the Sultan: The Crusades, Islam, and Francis of Assisi’s Mission of Peace a central source for UPF’s film, seems out of his depth on matters concerning Islam. In one lecture, he has cited as an authority George Washington University Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a man whom Iranian media reported
saying that he worked to limit the influence of Jewish and Baha’i
professors in Islamic studies. Nasr has also overseen the creation of a study Quran that whitewashes the book’s more disturbing passages. Speaking under the auspices of the Gülenist Intercultural Dialogue Institute in Canada, Moses cited also Quran 5:83
as an example of Islamic respect for Christianity. Yet the text
actually indicates Christians recognizing Islam as true, while the preceding verse
contrasts the friendship of Christians with Jews, the “most intense of
the people in animosity toward the believers” in Islam. His cited source
for this verse is, moreover, Hartford Seminary Professor Mahmoud Ayoub, a longtime associate of the MB-derived and terrorism-linked International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT).
Moses displayed similar flawed judgment in praising the New York chapter of the radical pacifist organization Pax Christi for bestowing a “Peacemaker” award on Debbie Almontaser. Her radical ties led to her losing her position as principal at an Arab-language high school.
UPF’s choice of associates becomes understandable in light of Daniel Tutt, UPF’s Director of Programs/Producer. At the European Graduate School, he obtained his doctorate under Alain Badiou and later studied under Slavoj Žižek, two communist philosophers. Amidst their almost indecipherable totalitarian tracts spiced with radical antisemitism, Badiou has described
Palestinians as “slaves” of an Israeli “colonial state” engaged in the
“project of a genocide of the Palestinians.” Meanwhile, Žižek has attributed
Al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks to the “antagonisms of global
capitalism” and described Israel as an “apartheid” state that, as in
Badiou’s view, should disappear in a single Palestinian state.
Tutt has shown the influence of his teachers while ombudsman for The Islamic Monthly (TIM). Its editorial staff includes the fanciful Islam apologist Karen Armstrong, the Panglossian believer in Islamic democracy Noah Feldman, former CAIR legal adviser Arsalan Iftikhar, and the radical professor Sherman Jackson. Tutt himself at TIM has sanitized the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
movement seeking Israel’s destruction. This is a “non-violent campaign
using boycotts, commercial divestments and sanctions to pressure Israel
to abide by international law and grant Palestinians their rights.” Sana Saeed, a producer at the radicalAl Jazeera network, was even more strident at TIM in her denunciation of “Faithwashing Apartheid and Occupation” by the Israeli Shalom Hartman Institute’s Muslim Leadership Initiative
(MLI). She described “Israeli occupation and ethnic cleansing of
Palestine” as a “mid-20th century Euro-American settler-colonialist
project.” Thus the MLI “normalizes Zionism – a racist ideology and
institution that is antithetical to our own Islamic traditions of social
justice.”
Saeed’s views contradict Tutt’s involvement with The Sultan and the Saint. One of the MLI organizers, Homayra Ziad from the Baltimore-based Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, appears in an online video.
Despite her treatment on TIM’s pages, she gushes that different faiths
“have significant theological and practical differences, but we harness
those differences to compete with one another, not in animosity, but
towards the common good.”
Ziad exemplifies the disjunction between those associated with UPF and not always benign Muslims and their allies. Moses has worried about President Donald Trump’s “anti-Muslim rhetoric.” UPF’s executive producer, the Muslim convert Alex Kronemer, has similarly argued
that Muslims “feel attacked by hostile rhetoric about Islam that would
never be accepted in the public square about any other faith.”
Yet the gauzy rhetoric surrounding The Sultan and the Saint
and other UPF film productions does not correspond to UPF’s reality. UPF
simply manifests the various politically correct, sometimes
contradictory shibboleths of the modern red-green alliance of leftists
and Islamists. Rather than harmonious unity, UPF’s wolves in sheep’s
clothing have far more controversial, sinister agendas.
_______________________________________________________
“Queering the Bible” is set to launch next fall and will be instructed
by Gwynn Kessler, an associate professor of religion, according to
Swarthmore’s course catalog.
The course, which is being offered through Swarthmore’s Religion
Department, promises to “[introduce] students to the complexity of
constructions of sex, gender, and identity in one of the most
influential literary works produced in ancient times.”
“By reading the Bible with the methods of queer and trans* theoretical
approaches,” the catalog advertises, “this class destabilizes long held
assumptions about what the bible–and religion–says about gender and
sexuality.”
It appears that the Swarthmore Religion Department will offer no other
Bible-centric courses next fall apart from this one. Out of around ten
listed courses that explicitly involve Bible study at Swarthmore,
“Queering the Bible” appears to be the only one taking place in fall of
2018. Only one other Bible-related course, a class teaching the grammar
and vocabulary necessary to read the Old Testament in the original
Hebrew, is offered during that time.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
SWARTHMORE, Pa. —A private liberal arts college
just outside of Philadelphia is drawing concerns over a “Queering the
Bible” class included in its course catalog that is meant to provide
“queer and trans readings of biblical texts.” Swarthmore College, founded in 1864 by Quakers, provides a description of the course
on its website, along with other upcoming religious-themed classes such
as “Christian Mysticism,” “Islamic Law and Society” and “From Vodun to
Voodoo: African Religions in the Old and New Worlds.” “This course surveys queer and trans readings of biblical texts,” the
outline reads. “It introduces students to the complexity of
constructions of sex, gender, and identity in one of the most
influential literary works produced in ancient times.” “By reading the Bible with the methods of queer and trans theoretical
approaches, this class destabilizes long held assumptions about what
the Bible—and religion—says about gender and sexuality,” the course
description asserts.
The study will be offered this fall and taught by Swarthmore
Associate Professor of Religion Gwynn Kessler. According to the college
website, Kessler’s research work focuses on Jewish interpretations of
Scripture, specifically “rabbinic theology and rabbinic constructions of
gender and identity” with “postmodern, feminist, and queer theoretical
approaches.”
KesslerKessler
is the author of several publications, including “Imagining the Fetus:
The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture,” “Torah Queeries: Weekly
Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible” and “Let’s Cross That Body When We Get
To It: Gender and Ethnicity in Rabbinic Literature.”
Christian News Network reached out to Kessler for comment, but a
response was not received as of press time. The College Fix, which first
reported on the matter, likewise attempted to obtain additional
information from Kessler, but the professor did not respond.
In addition to Kessler’s “Queering the Bible” course, Swarthmore also
lists among its religion courses—although it does not appear that it is
being currently offered—a study called “Queering God: Feminist and
Queer Theology.”
“The God of the Bible and later Jewish and Christian literature is distinctively masculine, definitely male. Or is He?” the description of the course
reads. “If we can point out places in traditional writings where God is
nurturing, forgiving, and loving, does that mean that God is feminine,
or female? This course examines feminist and queer writings about God,
explores the tensions between feminist and queer theology, and seeks to
stretch the limits of gendering-and sexing-the divine.”
Public reaction to Swarthmore’s “Queering God” and “Queering the
Bible” courses has been largely in opposition of such teachings.
“This college is wrong to be offering such a damaging course. They are harming young minds unnecessarily,” one commenter wrote.
“This is about sanitizing and neutralizing the prohibitions on
homosexual acts that Scripture unequivocally condemns. … Guilty
conscience? No problem, we’ll simply alter the verses to suit
ourselves,” another stated.
Leviticus 18:22, part of what is referred to as the Torah, reads,
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.”
Jude 1:7, written by a man believed to be one of Christ’s earthly
brothers, also outlines, “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities
about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication and
going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire.”
Most of the children can’t even read or do math at a proficient level,
government studies show. But victims of government schools across
California will now be forced to endure extreme state-sponsored
“Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender” (LGBT) indoctrination, whether
parents approve or not. | Article: http://bit.ly/2CSMN56
Dr. Duke Pesta and Dr. Sandra Stotsky Dissect Why Common Core Has Failed Every Child THE STEALTH “REBRANDING” OF COMMON CORE FreedomProject’s Academic Director, Dr. Duke Pesta, interviews Dr.
Sandra Stotsky on the demonstrable failures of Common Core. According to
a new study from the Pioneer Institute, the move to Common Core has
decimated academic achievement in Massachusetts. Prior to adopting the
Core, Massachusetts schools and educational standards were the finest in
the nation, in large part because of the work of Dr. Stotsky. Now,
Common Core has relegated Massachusetts to the same underachieving,
politicized, centralized mediocrity plaguing the rest of the country’s
public schools. Learn more @ http://www.fpeusa.org/commoncore
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Liberal Governors Andrew Cuomo & Gerry Brown Pardon Illegal Immigrants to keep them in the USA.
USA –-(Ammoland.com)- While the nation was preoccupied celebrating the holidays, the governors of
two major states pardoned immigrants convicted of serious crimes to
shield them from deportation.
First, California Governor Jerry Brown pardoned two men on the verge of being deported for committing crimes in the U.S., according to a Sacramento news report.
Days later, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
[who is eyeing a run for President] pardoned 18 immigrants convicted of
serious crimes so they could remain in the country. The foreigners had
obtained legal immigration status in the United States but committed
such abhorrent crimes that they faced removal after the completion of
their criminal sentence. An official statement issued by the governor’s office refers to the pardoned as “contributing members of society” who face the “threat of deportation and other immigration-related challenges” as a result of their crimes.
Cuomo
said the foreign criminals he pardoned had been rehabilitated but the
“stigma of convictions” prevented them from gaining legal status or
fully reentering society. “While the federal government continues to
target immigrants and threatens to tear families apart with deportation,
these actions take a critical step toward a more just, more fair and
more compassionate New York,” Cuomo said in a statement.
The
state press release also quotes several representatives from open
borders groups praising the governor’s pardons. Among them is the
president of a group dedicated to eradicating racial disparities in the
criminal justice system, who commended Cuomo’s strong display of
leadership.
“Too many immigrants with prior criminal
convictions are subjected to the gratuitous punishment of deportation,
despite being longstanding contributing members of our community,” said
the president of the Vera Institute of Justice. The director of the
Center on Race, Inequality and the Law also applauded Cuomo, saying
“deportation is an out-size punishment for prior criminal convictions
when people serve their sentences and go on to become longstanding, law
abiding, contributing members of society.”
Let’s look at a few of the newly pardoned immigrants.
The
Californians are two Cambodian men, Mony Neth of Modesto and Rottanak
Kong of Davis, arrested in immigration sweeps a few months ago. The men,
ages 42 and 39, came to the U.S. as children and were convicted of
felonies as adults. The crimes include a weapons charge and association
to a gang. Neth and Rottanak were scheduled to be deported in December
along with dozens of other Cambodians convicted of crimes but a federal
judge in southern California issued a temporary restraining order after
their pro bono attorneys from a civil rights group filed an emergency
motion. Nearly 2,000 Cambodians in the U.S. are subject to deportation,
according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) figures cited in a northern California newspaper. More than half of them have criminal convictions that stripped them of legal status.
The
New York pardons include a 57-year-old Mexican transgender woman
convicted of criminal facilitation, a 35-year-old man from Estonia
convicted of larceny and a 53-year-old Dominican man convicted of
criminal sale of a controlled substance.
The Mexican
national, Lorena Borjas, deserves to stay in the U.S. because she is a
strong advocate for transgender and immigrant communities and runs HIV
testing programs for transgender sex workers and a syringe exchange for
transwomen taking hormone injections. The Estonian, Alexander Shilov,
became a nurse and frequently gives talks on overcoming addiction. The
Dominican, Freddy Perez, works as an electrician and takes care of his
autistic younger brother. For these reasons, they deserve to remain in
the U.S. despite their criminal histories, according to Cuomo.
This appears to be part of a broader effort by local governments to protect criminal immigrants from deportation. Months ago, Judicial Watch reported
that prosecutors in two major U.S. cities ordered staff not to charge
illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get
the offenders deported. Brooklyn, New York District Attorney Eric
Gonzalez was the first to issue the order creating two sets of rules
involving local crimes. The goal, according to a statement issued by the
Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, is “minimizing collateral immigration consequences of criminal convictions.”
Taxpayers in the busy New York City borough are also paying for two
immigration attorneys to train all staff on immigration issues and
advise prosecutors when making plea offers and sentencing
recommendations. The idea is to avoid “disproportionate collateral consequences, such as deportation, while maintaining public safety.”
Gonzalez, the Brooklyn District Attorney, says he’s committed to equal
and fair justice for all Brooklyn residents—citizens, lawful residents
and undocumented immigrants alike. Judicial WatchA
few weeks after Brooklyn proudly disclosed its policy, prosecutors in
Maryland’s largest city joined the bandwagon, albeit more quietly. There
was no public announcement or celebratory press conference but a local
newspaper got ahold of an internal memo sent by Baltimore’s Chief Deputy
State’s Attorney instructing prosecutors to think twice before
charging illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes. The chief
deputy, Michael Schatzow, used similar language in the memo, writing
that the Trump administration’s deportation efforts “have increased the potential collateral consequences to certain immigrants of minor, non-violent criminal conduct.” Schatzow is second-in-command to Baltimore’s top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, and oversees major crimes at the state agency.
“In
considering the appropriate disposition of a minor, non-violent
criminal case, please be certain to consider those potential
consequences to the victim, witnesses, and the defendant,” Schatzow
wrote to his staff.
About Judicial Watch
Judicial
Watch, Inc., a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation,
promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government,
politics and the law. Through its educational endeavors, Judicial Watch
advocates high standards of ethics and morality in our nation’s public
life and seeks to ensure that political and judicial officials do not
abuse the powers entrusted to them by the American people. Judicial
Watch fulfills its educational mission through litigation,
investigations, and public outreach.
For more information, visit: www.JudicialWatch.org.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair Keith Ellison
endorsed
Antifa on Wednesday, tweeting a picture of himself smiling with an
Antifa handbook. Ellison posted a picture with “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook” and
asserted that the book would “strike fear in the heart” of President
Donald Trump.
Antifa is a far-left group that uses violence to achieve progressive
political ends, including starting riots and fires at the University of
California, Berkeley. While the group claims to be anti-Fascist, they
routinely shut down the speech of people they disagree with. Antifa
clashed with far-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, last
year.
The book, written by Dartmouth professor Mark Bray,
argues that “militant anti-fascism is a reasonable, historically
informed response to the fascist threat that persisted after 1945 and
that has become especially menacing in recent years.”
According to Bray, it is acceptable to use violence against “fascism”
because what he considers to be fascist ideas — like those shared by
right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous — aren’t worthy of debate.
Bray also states that anti-fascists must be prepared to “physically confront the far right when necessary.”
During an MSNBC interview in August, Bray even argued that Antifa
needs to preemptively strike against white nationalists because “fascism
cannot be defended by speech.” (RELATED: Dartmouth Professor Defends Antifa Violence)
Ellison’s decision to share a photo with the book is interesting considering House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi condemned the “violent actions” of Antifa protesters.
__________________________________________________________
Ellison-Top Democrat Endorses Antifa
Powerful Democrat Keith Ellison Second in Command of Democrat Party praises Antifa handbook – by Mark Bray
“U.S. places Pakistan on watch list for religious freedom violations,” Reuters, January 4, 2018:
WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department
has placed Pakistan on a special watch list for “severe violations of
religious freedom,” it said on Thursday, days after the White House said
Islamabad would have to do more to combat terrorism to receive U.S.
aid. The State Department also said it had re-designated 10 other nations
as “countries of particular concern” under the International Religious
Freedom Act for having engaged in or tolerated egregious violations of
religious freedom. The re-designated countries were China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North
Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
They were re-designated on Dec. 22. “The protection of religious freedom is vital to peace, stability,
and prosperity,” the department said in a statement. “These designations
are aimed at improving the respect for religious freedom in these
countries.”…
MICHAEL W.
SMITH CONTINUES TO CALL FOR ECUMENICAL UNITY
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
BY DAVID CLOUD
(Friday Church News Notes, January 5, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)
– One of the great dangers of using contemporary worship music is that
it builds bridges to the one-world church. To my knowledge, 100% of the
popular contemporary worship musicians are radical ecumenists, including
Stuart Townend and the Gettys. They have non-critical association with
“Christians” of every stripe, including Roman
Catholics. To them, “separation” is almost a dirty word. Michael W.
Smith is one of the most prominent and influential names in contemporary
worship, and he continues to call for ecumenical unity. The goal of his
new live album Surrounded is “to unify the Church’s diverse
expressions into one passionate, joyful cry of worship.”He says, “I
feel God moving through His Church and He is calling us together to be
one voice and one heart. One bride. Every
nation, every tribe and every tongue. Every social class, EVERY
DENOMINATION” (“Michael W. Smith Releases Two Albums,” louderthanthemusic.com,
Dec. 2017).It is impossible to reconcile the Bible’s clear and
forceful warnings about false teaching and apostasy (e.g., Romans 16:17;
2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 11:1-4, 14-15; 1 Timothy 1:3; 4:1-5; 2 Timothy
3:5; 4:3-4; 1 John 4:1; Jude 3; Revelation 2:14-16) with contemporary
praise music’s call for ecumenical unity. For those
who love the Bible, interpret it literally, and hold it to be the sole
and final authority for faith and practice, it is clear that the voice
Michael W. Smith is hearing is not God’s. “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and
I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:128). Bible-believing churches that
are messing around with contemporary music and are not properly
educating their people about this issue are playing with spiritual fire,
but most of the pastors are terribly and carelessly and willfully ignorant of such things.
KesslerKessler
Judicial WatchA
